Australia: Barnett to chop potato regulator
WA’s archaic “spud cop” faces the chop, with Colin Barnett declaring the Potato Marketing Corporation will be abolished within two years.
The Premier told The West Australian it was time to peel back rules that dictated the varieties, quantities and price of potatoes grown in the State.
“The Potato Corp’s days are up,” Mr Barnett said. “It will go. It should have gone years ago.”
The corporation’s future has been under the microscope in recent weeks after a Federal review on competition policy singled it out as a $3.8 million-a-year drag on the WA economy.
As well as requiring growers to be licensed and restricting potato crops, the PMC has draconian powers, including the ability to search vehicles suspected of carrying more than 50kg of potatoes and impound contraband spuds.
As part of a potential bailout deal to help WA as it has its GST share slashed, Canberra has told Mr Barnett he should cut “anomalous” business practices.
The abolition of the PMC will be part of a suite of reforms demanded by the Abbott Government in negotiations for about $500 million of infrastructure spending brought forward by the Commonwealth.
Mr Barnett said the PMC’s predecessor was set up in the 1940s to ensure a stable supply of potatoes to feed war-torn Europe but the Government was now looking to wind it up.
Click here to read more at au.news.yahoo.com.
Fuente: http://www.freshplaza.com/article/138550/AU-Barnett-to-chop-potato-regulator
