Grievance Debate

YORKE PENINSULA FIELD DAYS

The SPEAKER: I call the unusually passionate member for Goyder today.

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (15:04): I was rather angry about that situation, Mr Speaker, so there was a reason for that. It is my great pleasure to talk this afternoon about the Yorke Peninsula field days.

Members interjecting:

Mr GRIFFITHS: I am pleased to hear that. Many members say they wish they had been there. I had the privilege provided to me by the parliament to be away yesterday and to attend that and to witness some of the excitement that is created on the northern Yorke Peninsula for the three days on which Paskeville holds its field days. They have been going for 119 years. From their commencement in 1894 with very humble beginnings, moving around to a lot of different areas and totally focused upon agriculture, they have branched out since then and have now become just a wonderful example of what regional communities are like.

For the last 40 years or so, they have been based on the same site, and anyone who has had the opportunity to be there and witness the level of infrastructure development that has taken place cannot be anything but impressed, because the facilities are absolutely first class. It has come about as a result of the wonderful prudent management applying for some grants, an enormous amount of volunteer work to build things, and belief in a community that wants to actually provide a facility that is in top-notch order, and it does so.

The field days attract so many exhibitors, and they are probably in their hundreds. I know I have seen exhibitor site number 600, so there are people spread everywhere, and it is amazing how many people go for all three days. It is a long three days, but they are there for three days looking around, talking to people, looking at things they are interested in purchasing and looking at some of the exhibits which involve hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of machinery. They then go down to some of the lower level exhibits in smaller areas that talk about skills that are available, places for kids to go to, household products, clothing—everything that you could imagine that is associated with a society is on display at Paskeville for the three days of the field days.

The stall holders are wonderful people. Many of them have to come up the previous week to bring up some of their displays. They are there on the Monday just making sure the displays are in their final and best order. The exhibits are open to the public on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The packing up commences on the Friday when people are going home. But all three days are exciting to see the number of people there, hopefully who want to buy products—some of them very expensive, some much smaller—but they come there because they know they are going to have a good time.

No matter which of the streets you walk on—and there are streets all over the site—you will find somebody that you know; somebody to have a conversation with; somebody to ask a question of; and somebody who can actually help you in providing a service or just give you some information. I truly enjoyed it. For me, I first went there in 2005 as a candidate for the Liberal Party to set up for three days and to ask questions of people and then they would tell me what was going on and we would see what we could hopefully do for them. It has become a rather challenging time. Being there yesterday, I was consumed in talking to people about mining and wind farm applications for the Yorke Peninsula area. I was there from 8.30am until 5.30pm, and just every moment was taken up by that.

Mr Pengilly: You shouldn't have come back then; you could have been there a bit longer.

Mr GRIFFITHS: It was packing up then, member for Finniss, so it was time to walk home. I want to put on record my great appreciation for those people that make it possible, and there are a couple of organisations that I want to read out. It is made up primarily of the agricultural bureaus from the Northern Yorke Peninsula who work for seemingly two whole years in between the finish of one field day to the start of the next one to make sure that everything runs smoothly.

Mr Pederick interjecting:

Mr GRIFFITHS: And the member for Hammond points out they do so without government support. They might get a little bit in promotion, but the absolute majority is done through their own effort. These are people from the Arthurton agricultural bureau; the Bores Plain agricultural bureau; the Bute agricultural bureau; the Cunliffe women in agriculture and business; the Moonta agricultural bureau; the Paskeville agriculture bureau; the Portersville agricultural bureau; South Hummocks agricultural bureau; Snowtown agricultural bureau, which is led by their president Mr Paul Browning who is from Bores Plain agricultural bureau, and their administrator is Elaine Bussenschutt OAM.

I want pay special tribute to Mr Browning and Mrs Bussenschutt. It is on a rotational basis so it has been a big challenge for Mr Browning. He did a great job yesterday at the official opening of which Mr Ian Doyle from ABC radio and television was the guest speaker to open the event. Elaine Bussenschutt, a previous chairperson of the association and now its full-time administrator, is a wonderful example. Seemingly she knows everybody in regional South Australia who is an exhibitor and she has a great connection with those people who do make this effort to come and exhibit. It attracts literally thousands of people. I want to put on record also the fact that there are wonderful sponsors. The Advertiser has been a major sponsor for a long time, and all of South Australia can be proud of what the Yorke Peninsula Field Days does.