Dairy Concessional Loans

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (15:08): My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. Can the minister inform the house why his department is not recognising water licences and stock as assets for the dairy concessional loan?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport, Minister for Racing) (15:09): My understanding of this is that because in South Australia we have different rules and treatments of things than they do in some other states, I know that we differ from—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: We differ from Victoria, for example, but we line up with New South Wales. That is my understanding. But—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The opposition will cease interjecting. I don't wish to throw anyone else out.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: We were the first government in Australia to get behind our dairy farmers, and when Murray Goulburn and Fonterra took the action they did earlier in the year, we were out there within—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The minister has the call. The minister has offered no provocation. He will be heard in silence.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: We were out there within days, offering money for dairy farmers in this state to have counselling around the shock that they had received, as well as making sure that they had access to financial counselling. We have also put in more money since then, and we have put in an extra $60,000 into a campaign called Do Dairy to remind consumers that we need to be buying the right sort of dairy products, the right sort of milk, and not buying the Coles and Woolies milk, because that is really important. That's a sustainable thing to do because—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The members on my left will cease interjecting, please.

Mr GARDNER: Point of order, sir. The question was quite clear and limited: how many dairy concessional loans have been approved by the department to date? The minister is all over the place.

The SPEAKER: Minister.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: No, it actually wasn't the question. Let's ask the member for Mount Gambier: was that the question?

The SPEAKER: Would the member for Mount Gambier read his question again.

Mr BELL: Can the minister inform the house why his department is not recognising water licences and stock as assets for the dairy concessional loans?

The SPEAKER: The member's question had no relationship whatever to the point of order made by the member for Morialta and it is therefore a bogus point of order.

Mr GARDNER: I apologise, sir.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: Dairy farmers have taken a severe blow this year, through no fault of this government or the federal government, and we will continue to work with the federal government on ways that we can get more money out there. We have put in more money to look after the dairy farmers. The federal government has come up with a system, and we will continue to work with the dairy farmers of South Australia to ensure these hardworking people are looked after.