THE Senate has asked Australian Wool Innovation to give an account of itself.

It all sounds fairly fishy, particularly with AWI's elections due a month later.

Monday, October 20 is the day the AWI board has been asked to face the Senate by the chairman of the Rural and Regional Affairs Committee, Senator Glenn Sterle.

No prizes for guessing that Senator Bill Heffernan has triggered the request.

Just what AWI will be asked remains a mystery, but expect some curly questions to provide a 'Heffernan headline' for the sake of embarrassing the AWI board and administration currently controlled by powers aligned to AWI's former chairman Ian McLachlan.

There has never been any love lost between the two.

Senator Heffernan, by his own admission, helped in the re-organisation of the post-2001 wool bodies - Australian Wool Services and AWI led by Rod Price, Maree McCaskill and Col Dorber.

Racked by governance and accountability issues, the McCaskill-Dorber administration was replaced in 2002 by a team led by Ian McLachlan, no doubt much to the chagrin of Senator Bill.

It's no secret if the forces aligned with the Australian Wool Growers Association can get another two members elected to the nine-member board the power balance will shift again.

If recent Senate questioning is any guide, Senator Heffernan will be looking for an opportunity to grab a headline trashing the AWI administration, which in turn might help those challenging for a seat on the board.

All of which is fairly sad. The last thing the wool industry needs at the moment is further division.

Vale Michael Lempriere

THE Australian wool industry lost one of its champions last week with the death of Michael Lempriere, 72.

Mr Lempriere died following a car accident in New Zealand.

Although in semi-retirement, Mr Lempriere still retained a lifetime commitment to wool as an exporter, a producer and active role in industry organisations including more recently as chairman of the International Wool textile Organisation, a position from which he retired in 2007.

He remained chairman of Lempriere Australia, the nation's oldest wool exporting company, which is today run by Michael's son Will.

Mr Lempriere, very much a free marketer, detested government regulation and levies, although he was a stickler on the need to promote wool.