Yorke Peninsula Field Days

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (16:09): I wish to offer my congratulations to the Yorke Peninsula area for an event that occurred a couple of weeks ago—the Yorke Peninsula Field Days. I was not able to attend the last parliamentary sitting week, as I was given the three days away to be at the field days for all three days that it runs—Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. As has been my practice for some time, a temporary electorate office is created in the pavilions, and I share it with Rowan Ramsey, the federal member for Grey. We do so on the basis that the local community supports the event significantly in numbers and it also a great opportunity for people to come and talk to us about issues of concern, pleasure or anything in between. We do that and expose ourselves to criticism and thanks, as it turns out, across the three-day period.

The Yorke Peninsula Field Days have existed for 122 years, first starting in 1895 on a site near Bute, a little bit farther to the north. It is the 40^th year that they have been held on the site near Paskeville, having started in 1977. Many members have attended, including the Minister for Local Government and Regional Development, the Minister for Agriculture, the Hon. David Ridgway and the Leader of the Opposition, Steven Marshall (member for Dunstan). I am glad Steven Marshall was there on the Wednesday, the day of the official opening. The member for Morphett was also there.

It is a great opportunity for interaction to occur and to witness what is good about regional communities. There were over 700 exhibitors on the site, and the size of the site it occupies is immense. Probably 30 roads form the laneways between pavilions, which are permanent structures, and the tents and marquees that are erected. It is a great chance to buy anything you could ever need in regional community. Those who are in agriculture, in particular, can look at some of the latest innovations in technology in the agricultural industry. The value of the products on display is in the absolute millions.

It becomes a challenging day. A lot of people get there at 9 o'clock, when it first opens. There are a lot of hardy souls—and I enforce that point—who go for all three days, and for those people it would be absolutely exhausting. Many do so on the basis that they get there on the Tuesday to see the things that they are particularly interested in. On Wednesday, they go back to have a look at the stuff they might not have seen on the Tuesday, and on the Thursday they go back to buy some items at bargain prices from the exhibitors who do not want to return them to their warehouses. It is a great chance to have a look. All credit must be paid to the community groups that support it. Community groups from across the Yorke Peninsula area are involved in the catering. While an enormous amount of effort and volunteer hours create it, it is also a significant fundraiser for those groups. My congratulations to them.

The ag bureau is exceptionally well led when it comes to the groups that make up its management board. There are eight agriculture bureaus on Yorke Peninsula that form the management structure. Each of those ag bureaus has two representatives who can rotate on the board. The president's position rotates amongst the different agricultures, and this year it was led by Nick Correll as president, with the long-serving Elaine Bussenschutt OAM as chief executive officer, and I acknowledge Elaine as the former president of YP Field Days, coming from its ag bureaus.

It is probably 18 months of work to create the field days, with an expenditure in the thousands of dollars during the period from the last one to the next one to get all the arrangements right. Having been a stallholder, getting there on a Monday to set up, it is amazing to see the number of things that have been brought in on the Sunday or the weekend before to be set up on the Monday night and ready to go when people start to walk through the gates. I also give credit to the volunteers who act as overnight security. With many millions of dollars worth of goods, much of it in tents, it might be a tempting target for those who might not choose to do the honest thing, but it is all prepared and cared for.

All weather conditions are on display—beautiful days, wind, dust, rain—but the collective mix creates something I am very proud of and the region is very proud of. When you consider the economic multiplier that comes from having an estimated 35,000 people in the Copper Coast area, with many needing accommodation and being prepared to travel some distance, and the period that they stay, it creates a significant boost for the region. I am proud that the Yorke Peninsula Field Days are within the Goyder electorate. I pay tribute to the generations of people who have made them possible. Their forbearance and foresight 122 years ago have created something that our industry should be proud of and that the community is proud of.