Cellar Door Liquor Subsidy Scheme

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (15:52): The wine industry in South Australia is one of our great success stories. In South Australia, we have about 40 per cent of the national crush—just over 700,000 tonnes worth of grapes that we process and turn into about $1.8 billion worth of wine: a great value-add to be able to take grapes of that variety and that magnitude and turn them into an extremely valuable export market.

In this place, we have heard the Minister for Agriculture parrot on time and time again about how food and wine from our clean green environment is one of this government's priorities. Whilst the minister will stand here and talk endlessly about his support for this industry, what I think we really need to cut down to are the facts around how much the government actually provides on the table in terms of direct support for this industry. Last week, quietly trying to shuffle out a press release in the shadow of the federal election campaign in order to hide, the minister announced the fact that he was cutting almost $1 million from support to our much fabled, much vaunted wine industry.

The changes to the cellar-door subsidy scheme that we are talking about have been on the table for quite a while. Certainly, there needs to be some change to that scheme. It was decided earlier last year, in 2015, that it needed to take place so the minister, in conjunction with PIRSA, put together a consultation program running through May, June and July. In May, June and July they put forward a proposal that is extremely vague and the crux of it is, basically, that it might include infrastructure improvements to help wineries increase their capacity, innovative winemaking approaches, new cellar-door facilities, and targeted promotional events.

Those sound like laudable causes, except that between July last year and now, for 10 months, last week the minister and PIRSA sat on their hands and did nothing and came out last week and said, 'In six weeks' time we're going to move to the new scheme, except we can't tell you what it is yet or who's going to be eligible, and who, potentially, could get the money.'

After sitting on their hands for 10 months, they are now going through another consultation process over the next six weeks to try to understand what it is that they are going to do with this Cellar Door Liquor Subsidy Scheme. It is interesting that, whilst there is no certainty around what this scheme is going to encompass, the thing we can be certain of is the desire of this government to cut the almost $1 million from that scheme. It is a real kick in the face for one of the few bright spots that we have in the South Australian economy.

This is one of the few areas where we are actually able to grow exports. Indeed, the Minister for Investment and Trade comes into this place and talks about the success of the wine industry and its ability to break into markets in China, when really this government should be backing up that rhetoric with solid and firm action. This is as bungled a process as you can get. Even though the minister goes to the media and says, 'I know a lot of people who are supportive of what we are trying to do,' only two out of 703 wineries in South Australia expressed support for their very vague proposal.

As a business, you make decisions based on tax, regulatory and financial environments. Indeed, we are here in the middle of May and businesses will already understand what their marketing budgets and their business budgets are going to look like for the next year. What we have is a situation where the government has ripped out from underneath the wine industry almost a million dollars worth of funding, with no certainty but also no time, because this comes into effect on 1 July—no time.

If we are talking about trying to build confidence and provide certainty for industry, this is one of the most disgusting examples that shows up the government's hypocrisy in this area. The government will say, 'The new scheme will create jobs,' but the truth is that the current scheme also underpins jobs. Indeed, I was talking with some wine industry people and some winery owners who talked about how they use this funding to underpin new tourism experiences, and renovations and upgrades to their cellar door so that they can pay penalty rates and keep cellar doors open on public holidays.

What the government is seeking to do here is punish those who have actually been successful in becoming must-visit destinations in their regions. Wineries in my electorate, in the Barossa Valley in particular, have been extremely successful in creating themselves as a must-visit wine tourism destination, and those successful businesses that created those must-see experiences are now being punished. What is also being punished is their desire to add on to those experiences so that we can remain at the forefront of tourism.

These changes are disgusting. There needs to be a pause put on this so that there can be proper understanding of what is going to happen going forward, otherwise this industry is going to suffer as a direct result of this government's maladministration.