From the ABC
Wheat industry outraged over Iraq kickbacks
Grain traders and growers are angry at confirmation that monopoly wheat exporter AWB was involved in corrupt payments during the oil-for-food program in Iraq.
A United Nations report has found more than 2,000 companies were involved in making kickback payments to the Iraqi government to secure oil and humanitarian contracts between 1996 and 2003.
AWB paid more than $290 million to a Jordanian trucking company, which ended up in the hands of the Iraqi Government, a transaction which the UN says should have been questioned.
A spokesman for grains trading company Brooks Grain, Chris Brooks, says Australia's trade reputation is in tatters.
"They've lost 2 million tonne of wheat sales this year just to Iraq. It's fairly indicative of what's to come," he said.
"If any politician in Australia can stand up and justify to the Australian wheat growers that they should leave the single desk export marketing rights to the publicly listed company of AWB after this announcement then they probably should be dragged out and flogged with a log."

AWB denies wrongdoing
However, AWB's managing director Andrew Lindberg denies any wrongdoing and says the company did not know it was paying kickbacks to the Iraqi regime.
"Perhaps with the wisdom of hindsight, clearly maybe more inquiries should have been made but it certainly appeared to us reasonable at the time to pay the fees in the knowledge that every contract had the explicit approval of the United Nations," he said.
The Federal Government says it has confidence in AWB's ability to continue to negotiate export deals.

Vaile
Trade Minister Mark Vaile says responsibility for checking the contracts under the oil-for-food program lays with the United Nations.
He says the Government will not be taking any action against AWB and that time will tell whether future wheat export deals will be affected.
"That remains to be seen and again it's matter for AWB to be in the market negotiating with the purchasers of bulk grain in that market," he said.
"Obviously it is very, very important to us, it's very important to the grain growers of Australia, that the reputation of one of our largest exporting companies, AWB, be maintained."

From the ABC

AWB accused of reneging on wheat commitment
Grain traders are accusing AWB of reneging on a public commitment to relax the company's power of veto over wheat exports.

They say applications for hundreds of thousands of tonnes of wheat, including one from the consortium Wheat Australia, are held up at the Wheat Export Authority (WEA).

It is nearly a month since Trade Minister Mark Vaile told grain growers that AWB would relax its veto power to allow other companies to export to Iraq.

Applications to export more than half a million tonnes of wheat have been before the WEA for weeks, including a Wheat Australia bid to sell 350,000 tonnes to Iraq.

Under current legislation, AWB must give written authority to the WEA before any export applications can be processed.

"The authority must not give a bulk export consent without the prior approval in writing of AWB. I guess they're still waiting for that," Alick Osborne from the Grain Exporters Association said.

Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran is confident AWB will stand by its word.

"AWB has committed to the Government and to wheat growers to waive its veto power, they will honour that commitment," he said.

AWB will not comment on the delay.