Northern Adelaide Plains

Ms LUETHEN (King) (14:55): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Can the minister please update the house on the recent launch of the Northern Adelaide Plains website?

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE (Chaffey—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (14:55): Yes, I can, and I thank the member for King for her important question. I know that she is a very, very strong advocate for the Northern Adelaide Plains food bowl, but just as importantly her advocacy out at the Virginia Hort Centre has not gone unnoticed. The times that I have been out there, she has been out there as a strong advocate looking for ways that she can further advance what the Northern Adelaide Plains food bowl presents.

We know that the Northern Adelaide Plains Irrigation Scheme is almost up and running, and it presents itself a huge opportunity. Recently, I was joined by the member for King out there to make a fantastic announcement, and it was the launch of a new website for the Northern Adelaide Plains food producers. What it does is give them the opportunity to express and display what their businesses mean not only to the markets domestically but also as aspirational exporters.

I know that the member for King has been out there, and she is looking after her constituency, the food producers within King. What I can say is that she is now working with them to implement a drumMUSTER program—I think it is an outstanding exercise—working with CropLife Australia and working with my department. It is about looking at ways that we can implement the Clean Your Farm program.

It is a program that was implemented with the concern that, if those growers want to be part of export markets, they have to treat biosecurity with an absolute priority, and that is about cleaning up around their glasshouses, their polyhouses and on their farms. I commend her for the work that she is doing there. Really, we wanted to talk about the website that was launched out at the Virginia Hort Centre late last month, which showed that the food region is producing almost 200,000 tonnes of food at a value of about $300 million farmgate value.

In the last 15 months, this Marshall Liberal government has been working with the industry sectors and organisations on the Northern Adelaide Plains with the Food Cluster to understand how we can generate a more transparent model and give them the ability to put their story out there on a website, and they have done that.

The website is outstanding. It has been developed with those food producers. It has been developed with the Northern Adelaide Plains hort group. It has been, I guess, widely consulted on not only with AUSVEG and the Horticulture Coalition but also in collaboration with the Stretton Centre. I know that the member for King has worked extremely closely with that Stretton Centre to develop this website. I know that Barry Lloyd, a local greenhouse vegetable producer, is the inaugural chair, and the Stretton Centre's Tom Madigan is the acting cluster manager.

What I might say is that this is an opportunity that South Australia can hang its credentials on—biosecurity, food production and safe, clean, green food into an opening up export market, and those opportunities are aplenty. The Northern Adelaide Plains is now, as I said, looking at opening up the opportunities to double the value of their food and double the production of what they are growing out there with the opening up of the Northern Adelaide Plains Irrigation Scheme.

The funding that was provided to the Clean Your Farm campaign will be delivered with AUSVEG, as well as making sure that all the participants are engaged, making sure that we have a presentable food-producing farming sector, making sure that the Clean Your Farm overlays with the Northern Adelaide Plains website and making sure that we as food producers here in South Australia are proud and demonstrate that biosecurity is a priority.