Grain Industry

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:18): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Does the minister support the CFS having powers to force farmers to stop harvesting?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:18): I thank the leader very much for his question and note—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left! The minister will be seated for one moment. I call to order the following members: the member for Playford, the member for Badcoe, the member for West Torrens, the member for Kaurna and the member for Reynell.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I note the point you made before about not referring to a bill before the house. I won't do that other than to say that we are listening to the regions all the time. We are listening to the people of South Australia all the time.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Kaurna and the member for Giles are called to order.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: I know on that side they are not even aware of where the regions are. We understand that, but on this side we are out in the regions all day, every day. More than half of our side live in the regions.

Mr Hughes interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Giles is warned.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: We live it, breathe it, eat it and sleep it. We know that across the board, when it comes to fire safety, it is a very key issue. In fact, I was very proud to see 74 firefighters off at the airport yesterday to help out in Queensland. A number of them were from the regions and they know how important it is for primary industries to make sure that we are reaping what we sow and making sure that we are getting all the benefits out of the hard work done by our farmers. We know that is vitally important.

I must be very succinct and very clear in this: bushfires and fires in our regional areas are incredibly damaging and dangerous, as we know. On this side, we want to make sure that we have legislation in place to make sure that we are protecting our farmers and that we are keeping our regional communities as safe as possible from bushfires.