Grain Crops

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (15:09): Supplementary, sir, to the Minister for Agriculture: minister, do you have any idea how many hectares have been affected by severe frosts throughout the state, and what is the tally of severe hail damage across the state in regard to grain crops?

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) (15:10): I thank the member for Hammond for the question and acknowledge the great work that he does in his electorate and the close contact that he has with farmers throughout his district. The hailstorm that went through on Friday we are still assessing, and one of the things that we are encouraging all farmers to do is report into that hotline that we have set up because it is very patchy, and we are still trying to get a feel for just how widespread the damage is. The quicker we get that information in, the quicker we can collate it.

I know that probably about six weeks ago there were some farmers up in the Mid North who were hit by severe frosts and, as I mentioned, they have lost a lot of their crop. My understanding is that many of those were insured and will be covered by that. When we had the severe weather event that caused so much damage back at the end of September, there were farms over on Eyre Peninsula who lost everything, but it was very, very patchy and some isolated cases. People over there have lost a great deal of their grain crop but, again, they were insured.

I did run into the former member for Stuart in here a couple of weeks ago, and I asked him how his crop was looking. He said he has never had it better. It is patchy, but by and large any crop report that forecasts a record—and look at the carpet here, it has the wheat in the carpet. When we go back 175 years, this is the biggest crop predicted ever in the history of agriculture in South Australia, and it is a pretty good story to tell.

For those people who have lost everything, we hope they are insured. We want to hear from them if there is any way that we can help them. So far, the vast majority of people out there in cropping country are reporting very good results in terms of what they expect to reap a little bit later on this year.