Premier Western Australia: Potato Marketing Corporation will be abolished within two years

The Premier of Western Australia, Colin Bartlett, reportedly told The West Australian that it was time for rules that dictated the varieties, quantities and price of potatoes grown in Western Australia to go.

“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 Western Australian economy.

As well as requiring growers to be licensed and restricting potato crops, the Potato Marketing Corporation 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 Western Australia as it has its GST share slashed, Canberra has told Mr Barnett he should cut “anomalous” business practices.

The abolition of the Potato Marketing Corporation 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 Potato Marketing Corporation’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.

“It won’t be there after the next election (due in 2017),” he said.

“We may even bring in legislation prior to the election to nominate the day on which it closes.”