Thinking, Linking, Leveraging and Maximising Report

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:27): 'Thinking, Linking, Leveraging and Maximising': that is the roundtable discussion I attended on Friday through my local RDA for the Riverland and Murraylands. It was a co-innovation cluster program put together as part of the state government's premium food and wine and clean environment approach.

I should put on the record my initial scepticism of this program, and I note that there were significant delays by the state government on getting any movement on the co-innovation cluster program, but I look forward to seeing what this program will achieve. I note that the minister has made an announcement today that the recipients have been the Murraylands and Riverland, and the South Australian Murray Irrigators—and I am very proud to say that I was once chair of that group.

I will come back to those groups, but I found this report raised some interesting points through the work of UniSA's David Ness, Ke Xing, Sam Huang and Jantanee Dumrak, who were present at the launch. Also in attendance at the launch were myself, Brendan Sidhu from Jubilee Almonds, Scerina Rasheed from the Riverland Division of General Practice, Berri Barmera Council CEO David Beaton, Travis Heaft from Accolade Wines, Tim Smythe from PIRSA, and Mark Bell from the Murraylands and Riverland RDA. I note that both Steve White from 5RM and Chloe Hart from the ABC were also at the round table.

The report seeks to identify and analyse the potential for industry or market-based clusters in the Riverland proposing to link the food and beverage sector with other key sectors including tourism, education, health, sport and recreation and, of course, the environmental conservation and business services. The report states that this would leverage and maximise the benefits of predicted business growth in that sector and, indeed, for the whole region. I note that there are already some fantastic food and wine initiatives happening in the region—look at the likes of 919 Wines, and to put on the record, Eric Semmler was the 2014 Australasian Winemaker of the Year. So, great work by he and his good wife, Jenny.

Other initiatives include Caudo Vineyard, Banrock Station, Wilkadene Brewery, Venus Eco-Citrus program; and the list goes on. I would love to see more events being held in the regions showcasing the fantastic premium food and wine products that the Riverland has. We also have, of course, the famous Riverland Wine and Food Festival that many people travel from far away to attend; albeit a 2½ hour drive from Adelaide. It is a great initiative for them to be able to experience the Riverland's hospitality and also have a look around while they are up there, because they normally have to make it a two-day event.

Given the Riverland's unemployment rate is above South Australia's overall unemployment rate, there is an urgent need to focus on our agricultural export sector to create jobs, noting that more than 50 per cent of South Australia's exports come from regional South Australia. The Riverland's clean, green image and our very important fruit fly free and phylloxera-free status is, of course, critically important to our branding. So, there is much scope to increase trade with our key partners, particularly our Asian neighbours.

Of the findings and recommendations of the report, I found most interesting the comments based around the region's identity and branding. To me, it raises the question of whether the Riverland needs to have its own individual branding, its own logo, or a logo within the already prominent South Australian logo. Is there an opportunity to have the region's own branding incorporating some of that Brand SA? I think we need to look at that.

There are many areas we need to explore around branding, particularly with international markets as opposed to domestic markets. I note that the wine industry is looking at a different branding schedule to our food sector. The funding recipients announced today were Ricca Terra from the Murraylands and Riverland, and that is about developing clusters of the Riverland wine grape growers, winemakers and supporting partners, and, of course, the South Australian Murray Irrigators. That funding will allow those project leaders to draft a plan for water stewardship pilot projects in partnership with the Renmark Irrigation Trust.