Ms Ley faced 100 wheat farmers at Osborne Football meeting room, the majority of them angry and frustrated at their lack of representation in the federal parliament.

“I know you are very angry with me and as a Member of the Opposition, feel you have been let down,” she said.

Ms Ley pointed out the Australian Wheat Board’s single desk had not been transparent in its activities and the costs to wheat growers were very high.

“There was no compulsion to deliver the best price to farmers and to keep costs down,” she said.

Despite its monopolistic powers, “the single desk was a growers’ monopoly and growers preferred that to cartels that collude and drive down prices.”

On top of drought and rising fertilizer and fuel costs, the disbanding of the Australian Wheat Board’s single desk has left many grain growers devastated at the unpredictability of finding new markets and the loss of a vital floor price for the domestic market.

Osborne farmer Larry Smith of “Stonington” was dismayed the Liberals had turned against the single desk.

“It’s too difficult for a small grower like myself to market the wheat, watch the world wheat supplies, study the currency and make a decision on the futures market - it’s too risky,” he said.

Growers who harvested later in Southern NSW had the security of knowing “if the domestic market filled you had the wheat board pool to fall back on.”

Roger Schirmer said he felt cheated. “Sussan Ley has betrayed the whole electorate, she’s betrayed farmers and the rural communities,” he said.

“The dismantling of the single desk has taken the certainty and stability out of our market.”

Randan Fischer who called the meeting said “the main concern was how the wheat marketing system was going to work now the single desk is gone.”

Concerns were bluntly expressed to Ms Ley that overseas buyers who normally dealt with the single desk will go to the weakest seller and there would be no premium for the best bread wheats produced in southern NSW.