This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.
Jurisdiction
Commonwealth
Act Number
62 of 1974
Collection
act
Plain English Summary
7/10 complexity
What this law does (mechanically)
Repeals the 1968–1973 wheat-stabilization Acts and replaces them with a single, time-limited framework for marketing and stabilizing wheat from the season beginning 1 October 1974 and subsequent seasons (s3, s5).
Continues the Australian Wheat Board as a corporate body, sets its membership, appointment and removal rules, and provides for staff, remuneration and indemnities (s7–s16).
Gives the Board exclusive powers to accept deliveries, buy, sell, store, process and export wheat and wheat products for Australia’s export and interstate marketing (s17). The Board may keep pooled accounts across seasons for equitable attribution of sales (s17(2)).
Gives the Minister statutory power to direct the Board on performance of its functions; the Board must comply (s18). If the Minister requires extended credit terms that cause loss, the Treasurer may reimburse the Board from appropriated funds after consultation (s18(2)).
Requires delivery of wheat in Territories to the Board on notice (s21). Delivery may be via licensed receivers (s22). It prohibits dealings, movements and exports of wheat except as allowed by the Board, with criminal and monetary penalties for breaches (s21(5), s23(1)).
Establishes how growers are paid when they deliver wheat to the Board: payments are determined by the Board by reference to the net proceeds of disposal of the wheat of that season, with specified deductions and quality/transport allowances (s24). The Board may make advance payments with Ministerial approval (s24(3)).
Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
Provides special pooling rules and definitions for quota seasons and pools, and permits the Board to attribute sales among delivered wheat equitably (s6, s25).
Creates a stabilization mechanism: the Minister declares each season’s average export price and (for later seasons) a stabilization price; the first stabilization price is fixed in the Act and later stabilization prices are set by the statutory formula that combines the current average export price with prior-season figures (s28–s29).
Continues the Wheat Prices Stabilization Fund as a trust account (the Fund). Export-charge receipts are paid into the Fund (s30(2)). If the average export price is below the stabilization price, the Fund pays the Board the shortfall (subject to per-season and per-tonne caps and an overall cap provision); if the Fund is insufficient, the Consolidated Revenue Fund will be used up to a statutory limit and subject to recoupment rules (s30(4)–(9)).
Provides for domestic (home-consumption) pricing rules for sales in Australia by the Board (a baseline price with adjustments), and requires the Board to keep a separate account for amounts included to cover freight to Tasmania (s32–s33).
Sets accounting, banking, audit and reporting obligations for the Board; the Auditor-General inspects and reports annually (s34, s38–s39, s45).
Allows the Minister to arrange Reserve Bank advances and to guarantee Board borrowings, subject to approvals (s36).
Enables enforcement powers including notices, information returns, entry and search warrants, seizure of wheat and records by authorized persons, and penalties for obstruction and non-compliance (s42, s44, s46). Regulations are permitted to fill procedural gaps (s47).
Who pays and who decides (in plain terms)
Who pays: growers deliver wheat to the Board and receive payments determined by the Board from the proceeds of sales (s24). If market returns on exports are below the statutory stabilization price, the Fund makes up a part of the shortfall to the Board (s30(4)). The Fund is financed primarily by export-charge receipts and if necessary by appropriations from the Consolidated Revenue Fund (s30(2), s30(8)). Thus costs are borne by export charge payers and potentially by taxpayers if the Fund requires recourse to Consolidated Revenue (s30(8)–(9)).
Who decides: the Board manages marketing and determines payments to growers within the statutory method (s17, s24). The Minister appoints key members (Chairman, finance member and certain representatives) (s8(2)), issues directions the Board must follow (s18(1)), and declares the average export price and stabilization price (s29). The Treasurer has responsibilities for currency conversions and concurrence on technical price rules and for appropriation and guarantees (s29, s36).
Behaviour the law requires or changes
Growers in Territories may be required to deliver harvested wheat to the Board or licensed receivers and must provide written declarations about the harvest season and any claimants (s21, s22, s27). Delivering to a licensed receiver is the effective method of delivery (s22(1)).
Private sale, export, movement off-farm, processing (except limited on-farm use), or offering for sale wheat that is subject to the Board’s control is prohibited without the Board’s consent, with specified penalties (s23).
The Board centralizes export marketing and may control quotas and pool allocation (s17, s25). That centralization changes market routes available to growers by making the Board the principal counterparty for delivered wheat.
Incentives, costs and compliance burdens (section citations)
Incentives for growers: payments depend on the Board’s net proceeds and equalizing payments from the Fund when export prices fall short of the stabilization price (s24, s30(4)). This reduces price volatility for growers delivering to the Board but ties payments to Board accounting and allocation rules (s17(2), s24(2)(b)).
Compliance burden on growers and receivers: mandatory delivery rules, a requirement to furnish declarations and claimant details at delivery, record-keeping and potential criminal penalties for unauthorized dealings (s21–s23, s27, s42). Licensed receivers must follow Board directions concerning quotas (s22(2)).
Discretion vested in officials and the Board: the Minister can direct the Board (s18), fix prices and declare average export prices (s29), approve Board delegations and advance payments (s14, s24(3)), and the Board has wide discretion in attributing sales across seasons and in accounting methods (s17(2), s25(5)). Those discretions determine cash flow timing and allocation of returns to growers.
Fiscal cost and limit structures: the Fund pays per‑season/per‑tonne limits and an aggregate threshold for investments and recoupment; when the Fund is insufficient, Consolidated Revenue is used up to a specified cap and subject to recoupment rules (s30(4)–(9), s31). These statutory caps limit exposure but create recoupment and ordering rules for public money.
Key trade-offs and implementation risks (source‑grounded)
Concentration of market power for export and interstate sales in the Board simplifies national marketing and allows pooling (s17, s25) but concentrates decision-making (pricing, attribution, credit terms) in a statutory body and the Minister (s18, s29). The Act contains administrative safeguards (Auditor‑General oversight s39, annual reporting s45) but grants substantial operational discretion to the Board and Minister.
The Fund and payment caps create predictable limits on public support (s30(5)–(7)), but reliance on the Fund and potential recourse to Consolidated Revenue poses fiscal commitments and timing/recoupment complexity (s30(8)–(9), s31).
Interaction with State laws and State Boards is explicitly preserved; the Board can act through State Boards and must have regard to State quota laws (s8(3), s17(4), s25). That creates administrative complexity in coordinating Commonwealth and State rules (s41).
What to watch in practice (implementation notes)
The Minister’s declarations of average export price and stabilization price (s29) mechanically determine subsidies from the Fund (s30); the statutory formula for subsequent stabilization prices references prior years and the current average export price (s29(5)).
The Board’s accounting choices about attributing sales to seasons affect individual grower payments (s17(2), s24(2)(b), s25(5)).
If Fund balances cross the statutory thresholds, amounts may be paid to the Board or retained for future schemes per the Act’s ordering rules (s30(7), s31).
Bottom line (mechanical, not evaluative):
The Act centralizes wheat marketing through a continued Australian Wheat Board, mandates delivery and sale rules, fixes how growers are paid from pooled sales and a stabilization Fund, empowers the Minister to set price benchmarks and direct the Board, and establishes audit, reporting and enforcement mechanisms. The Fund and statutory price rules are the primary instruments that shift risk between growers, export‑charge payers and the public purse (s17, s24, s29–s31).