Barnaby Joyce must act to reassure grain growers that their research contributions are being used for their intended purpose.
Revelations that the Grains Research Development Corporation (GDRC) is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on an Alan Jones roadshow, marketing, and conference sponsorship requires explanation.
This is the same organisation which will spend more than a million dollars of levy-payer funds actioning Barnaby Joyce’s insistence they leave Canberra.
The Minister has a responsibility to guarantee levy-payer money and matching Government funds go to research to ensure a more sustainably profitable grains sector.
His suggestion that the road show and conference sponsorship allowed the GRDC to “actively engage with levy payers” is not good enough.
The GRDC has no marketing role, its objectives are confined to much needed research.
Barnaby Joyce must also guarantee he is not participating in, or attending the roadshow events for his own political purposes.
WEDNESDAY, 17 FEBRUARY 2016
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