Grain Crops

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (15:08): Supplementary: given the minister's answer to the question, can the minister confirm that the prices South Australia's farmers can expect for their bumper crop will be probably at a 15-year low and does he expect the return in dollar terms for the farming community to be anywhere near as much as last year's?

The Hon. T.R. Kenyon: 'We’ll all be rooned,' said Hanrahan, 'before the year is out'.

The SPEAKER: The member for Newland is warned.

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) (15:08): Of course, the prices that our farmers will be paid isn't determined by anything that happens in South Australia: it is determined by world trade, world markets and world climatic conditions. We know that the US has had a bumper season and their yields are way up. Other parts of the state have also had exceptional yields.

The price is at a very low point at this stage, but I would rather have a record crop to sell at a low price than a crop half that size to sell at those low prices. It is something that we have absolutely no influence over at all. It is an international market and we are out there competing with North America, Europe and the rest of the world. We wish our farmers all the very best. The prices that they will be able to get will be determined by forces set by conditions not just here in South Australia but on that global scale.