Great Wine Capitals

Dr HARVEY (Newland) (15:08): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Can the minister provide an update to the house on the recent visit to South Australia by wine business experts from the Great Wine Capitals Global Network?

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE (Chaffey—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (15:08): I certainly can, sir. I would like to thank the member for Newland for his question, and I note his advocacy with horticulture and the vegetable industry in his region, particularly Hermitage Produce, Paracombe Premium Perry, Gilmours Orchards and, of course, the Kersbrook Hill Wines and Cider company. I know his strong advocacy for his primary producers is almost second to none. The Great Wine Capitals network is a program that has bipartisan support in the South Australian parliament. We can thank the member for Mawson for that. Well done.

As a member of the Great Wine Capitals Global Network, Adelaide, South Australia, is part of the exclusive group of 10 international cities whose wine regions are recognised as significant economic and cultural assets. In late June, three international wine experts visited South Australia to visit the key wine regions: the great McLaren Vale, Barossa, Clare and, of course, the engine room of the wine industry, the Riverland, as part of our membership to the Great Wine Capitals Global Network.

This visit provided an opportunity for our wine regions and wine companies to learn international best practice in the wine industry. For the Great Wine Capitals network, this is what it is about: it is about knowledge sharing. It is about people visiting and understanding the situations that the wine regions are facing—marketing strategies and dealing with a global stage. It really is important that we see the great work that has already been undertaken.

Of course, the visit provided an opportunity for our wine regions and wine companies to understand about best practice and gave an opportunity for the three wine experts, Jacques Pesme, the Dean of the Wine and Spirit Academy and Associate Director at KEDGE, the business school in Bordeaux; Miguel Ribeiro, the General Manager of Monverde Wine Experience Hotel in Porto Portugal; and, of course, the great Clay Gregory, the President and CEO of the Napa Valley Vintners. They came and visited all our great wine regions but, really importantly, they tasted and experienced the great attributes that wine tourism and food in South Australia has.

As they said, South Australia is a world leader not only in wine styles and food matching but in the experience that comes with it. It's not just about drinking wine, and it's not just about eating the food: it is about the experience that sits alongside. It was great to catch up. We did some wonderful wine touring around our great state. The d'Arenberg Cube is now one of the great wine destinations in the world and a credit to the passion of the d'Arenberg family. We also visited Seppeltsfield in the Barossa, as well as Yalumba, Two Hands and Clare Valley Rocks.

It was also important that they came up to the Riverland and visited Banrock, they visited Caudo's and they had an experience there that they said they had never had anywhere in the world and that was a river cruise on the Caudo express, which is a pretty wild party boat, I must say. They had the opportunity to experience the great River Murray as well as drink some great South Australian wine. The Marshall Liberal government is backing our wine industry, and we recently delivered our election commitment with a $1 million annual funding to Food SA. The latest stats now show that South Australia continues to be the engine room of the Australian wine industry.

I do take note, and the member for MacKillop would be very proud, that wine exports out of his electorate in the Coonawarra region have had an 83 per cent increase in exports. Congratulations for the great advocacy work you have done in the wine industry. To top it off, working with the commonwealth government and the $50 million cellar-door regional wine tourism package is just another example of the great work that the wine industry is doing here in South Australia.