Frustrated potato growers have sent the West Australian State Government a bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars after the Government dropped an industry funded legal fight against Perth businessman Tony Galati.
WA Premier Mark McGowan made the decision to drop the case, which was launched by the now-defunct Potato Marketing Corporation (PMC) against Mr Galati for allegedly planting more than his designated quota of potatoes under regulation in 2015, flooding the market.
But just a week after the decision was made to abandon the grower-funded civil suit, Mr Galati pleaded guilty to a contempt of court charge and admitted to breaching an injunction in place to limit his potato plantings.
After the civil case was abandoned, Potato Growers Association chief executive Simon Moltoni said farmers wanted their money back.
"These are entirely grower funds," he said.
"Given the Government has decided without any notice to drop the damages claim, naturally we want the remainder of our money back."
Mr Moltoni said he had tried to speak with the Premier about why the civil case was abandoned without consultation with growers, but he had been unsuccessful.
Legal advice sought over repayment
Minister for Agriculture and Food Alannah MacTiernan said the State Government needed to seek legal advice before any funds could be returned to growers.
The Minister said it was the Government's intention to return the funds, and she and her colleagues "would like to do that".
But she said the legislation was unclear because the assets of the PMC were set to become "assets of DAFWA" after deregulation.
"We believe as a matter of principle this money should be distributed to growers," she said.
"So we're asking the state solicitors as a reference point to make that clear."
Civil case dropped for contempt case
Ms MacTiernan said the Government dropped the civil action against Mr Galati because it needed to draw a line under this issue.
She said the guilty plea in the contempt case negated the need for civil action.
"Mr Galati pleaded guilty to that matter, he was fined and he did agree to pay costs," she said.
"At the end of the day a decision had to be made about whether or not the state believed this was something that had to be prosecuted as part of a civil action as well.
"The view was taken that they wanted to draw a line under this whole period."
