Giles Electorate

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (15:51): I was intending today to speak about my electorate, especially given the five-week break and the opportunity to move around the different communities, but I thought it would probably be better to speak about my standing down from the role I had as shadow minister for primary industries and regional development, and the heavy heart with which I did that. It was not an easy decision to make.

Members are aware that I have the largest electorate, in terms of physical area, in the state—it is 1¼ the size of Germany—and getting around that electorate can present a number of challenges. Having primary industries and regional development on top of that was, at times, challenging, and at times you felt as though you were falling between two stools. I guess the draft boundary recommendations crystallised in my mind the need to make a decision, especially given the fact that if those boundaries were ratified several thousand new people would come into my electorate. I believed I needed time to devote to my electorate.

Having said that, it has been an honour to be the shadow minister for primary industries and regional development. When I was first appointed to that role, the cartoonist in the Whyalla News took a great deal of pleasure in doing a cartoon showing a farmer explaining to me the difference between a cow and a sheep, so I had a very low threshold to start from. Over the ensuing period, given the number of pastoralists I have met, the number of farmers I have met, people from the fishing industry, people from the wine industry, my level of knowledge significantly increased. One of the things I will really miss is the people I have met over that period of being shadow minister for primary industries.

We stand on this green carpet here today, which has been in place for a long time and renewed every now and again. In some ways, it reflects the basis of our economy going back well over a century. I am someone who from early on in my working life has come from heavy industry. I come from a town based on heavy industry and mining, so I did not have much to do with agriculture. Meeting all those people has given me a genuine interest, which was there to start with, but it has deepened that genuine interest in the work that they perform and how they perform it.

There are still many people who take our primary industries for granted both within the state and nationally. A lot of people in South Australia do not realise that in 2018-19 our primary industries—our agricultural sector, more specifically—generated over $11 billion in revenue for South Australia. That sector has been generating revenue year in, year out for many years, and it will continue to do so. I was very proud to be at the launch of the Grain Producers SA blueprint, with its aim to increase the revenue generated by the grain industry in this state up to $6 billion by the year 2030. The other sectors within primary industries also have ambitious targets they are looking to meet in the coming years.

I would like to acknowledge a whole range of peak bodies that I met with. I acknowledge the SA Dairyfarmers Association and the good work they do, and the Horticulture Coalition and the 14 organisations that lie under that, including the Wine Grape Council and, of course, Grain Producers SA. I ended up having more to do with Grain Producers SA because of the whole GM debate, which is something I am very proud of.