Agtech

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (14:26): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Can the minister update the house on how the state government is fostering collaboration and investment into agtech for South Australia?

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE (Chaffey—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (14:26): Yes, I can, and I thank the member for Hammond for his very important question. For those on this side of the house, we understand the importance of agriculture to South Australia's economy, a $20.3 billion economy, and it needs to grow. If South Australia is going to be a part of the nation's target of $100 billion—

The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Mawson is called to order.

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE: —by 2030, we do need to make advancements in agriculture and we do need to commercialise the R&D programs. To do that, this government is putting its best foot forward. Next Monday, we will have the Advance Ag forum here in Adelaide at the Wayville showground. It is an inaugural agtech event, designed to bring together farmers and entrepreneurs and the advancement within industry. To do that, we have to have the capacity to bring the collaboration of all the sectors together so that we can be leaders in this nation and we can be global leaders with the advancement of agriculture.

As I have said, it is an exciting event and we will have from Israel the start-up founder of Terra Venture Partners, Dr Astorre Modena, as a keynote speaker. He will be followed by one of the great South Australian entrepreneurs, Darren Thomas, from Thomas Foods International, and there will be more. What we as a government are demonstrating to agriculture and to our researchers is that we are open for business and we are using an open-door policy.

Just recently, I announced that open-door policy down at the Struan Research Centre and at Kybybolite in the South-East to make advancements particularly in the red meat sector. Our ag communicators down there are looking for that open-door policy so that they can walk into these research stations, because for such a long time they have seen the locked-door policy, that they can't get in there and look at the advancements in agriculture.

This government has opened the doors to the private sector as a partnership with government so that we can actually have the private-public partnerships that allow these great conversations to be had and allow our farmers, our food producers and our agriculturalists to come into these facilities and look at some of the commercialisation of agtech.

On the back of that, the government have also promoted agriculture over at evokeAG in Melbourne. We have a stand over there and that stand is headed up by no more expertise than our agtech advisory group. That group is headed up by Professor Leanna Reid, the former chief scientist. The eight members of that panel are over there not only promoting South Australia's advancement in agriculture but also promoting what South Australia has to offer to the commercial world, making sure that the commercial world understands the importance of that open-door policy.

The open-door policy is there for advancement to every farmer here in South Australia, but I think just as importantly it is about giving the global agriculture sector an understanding that South Australia wants to be the leader in advancement in agriculture. To do that, we are dealing with all sorts of vagaries: the headwinds of natural disasters that we have seen, the number of years that we have had drought here in South Australia, the recent bushfires, the vagaries of our commodity prices and dealing with new and emerging global markets.

It is critically important that we remain in front of the game and give our food producers, our agriculturalists, every tool in the toolbox to advance agriculture and that's why we will again pursue lifting the moratorium on GM. That's why we will continue to give any support we can to advancing agriculture here in South Australia because #RegionsMatter.