1998, Volume 1, Paper 4

The”Meyers Report” & The Australian Barley Board

A. S. Watson –  Freelance Economist, Melbourne

Introduction

The following comments were prepared at the request of the Australian Grain Industry Taskforce (AGIT) in the context of a review by the Center for International Economics (CIE) of Victorian and South Australian legislation affecting the barley industry, in particular, legislation determining the powers and functions of the Australian Barley Board (ABB). The review is being conducted in accordance with guidelines adopted by all Australian governments to meet their obligations under the National Competition Policy the “Hilmer process”.

AGIT is a group of grain producers who are critical of existing Australian grain marketing arrangements. AGIT notes that supporters of the status quo in barley marketing have drawn considerable comfort from work undertaken for the ABB by the Meyers Strategy Group in conjunction with Professor Gordon MacAulay of the University of Sydney, Department of Agricultural Economics. However, this work has not been subjected to detailed scrutiny.

The work in question is reported in two documents available to AGIT:

• Economic Analysis of the Value of the Single Desk, Summary Report to the Australian Barley Board April 1996, which is described as “presenting the findings emerging from the study”;

• A paper by MacAulay and Richards [a Meyers staff member], entitled “Models for the Analysis of Barley Marketing”, presented at the annual conference of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society January 1997.

These comments concentrate on the first paper, which is readily available to participants in the barley marketing debate. There is confusion about confidentiality and the number of papers prepared by Meyers for the ABB. AGIT believes all relevant work done by Meyers should be available to the CIE in this inquiry. For the record, the paper discussed below is 37 pages long, printed sideways, with 16 pages of Appendicies (sic), printed in the normal fashion. 

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