Agricultural Sector Employment

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (15:48): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Can the minister please update the house on how the Marshall Liberal government is working with the agricultural sector to create jobs for South Australia?

The Hon. D.K.B. BASHAM (Finniss—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (15:48): I thank the member for MacKillop for his question and I also thank him for representing me at the AgTech Field Day at Struan recently, such an important investment the Marshall Liberal government is making into technology that farmers can actually adopt and get to see in operation at these field days. I am sure the member for MacKillop understands the importance of this investment, which goes to underpinning the viability of these farming businesses and seeing this new technology that is out there that enables them to grow their businesses and invest in their businesses.

Also, I want to bring to the attention of the house the investment that the commonwealth has recently announced in the $11½ million Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub in South Australia. The Marshall Liberal government, alongside the federal government, is contributing $4.4 million over four years into this very important project.

The hub will be headquartered at Roseworthy, which is a great place for this hub. It's part of the Adelaide University's campus. Adelaide University is the lead agency going forward with this investment and injection into drought resilience. It's very much preparing farmers for the next drought, and we know there is another drought coming. We need to prepare our farmers for these droughts.

Five nodes will be associated with this drought hub. They will be based around the state. One of them is at Minnipa, which will be very much looking at the circumstances of growing grain and livestock on Eyre Peninsula. There will be another one at Port Augusta in the Far North, which will be very much focused on the pastoral industry. Orroroo in the Upper North is another, as well as Loxton in the Riverland, which will be working with the farmers around Loxton with respect to horticulture. We have another at Struan in the South-East, which will be dealing with drought issues in a high rainfall environment. A drought is not the same in every region, so it is very important that we have these hubs around the areas.

As I said, the drought hub is a project led by the Adelaide University. Flinders and UniSA are also part of this project, so this is very much a collaborative approach. We are working with the farming systems groups, we are working with other government agencies, we are working with the advocacy bodies themselves and we are working with local growers and relevant community groups.

The project is not only creating jobs but also supporting agriculture long term. It is so important that we help these farmers make sure that they are prepared for the next drought. The challenges are immense when droughts hit, and if we can prepare them, get them set up and make their business more resilient we will protect these jobs going forward. This is a great example of collaboration between government, industry, research and education, and it is building that drought resilience.

Certainly, as a farmer I very much understand the pressures of drought. The cost of feed can be enormous to those high input industries—like dairy, pork and others—that take that feed directly, or it can be devastating for those people who have to destock their properties because they have no feed on those properties. This is a huge challenge for our agriculture community. This is a great initiative by the federal government. The Marshall government supports it immensely, and we are working with our farmers to make sure that we deliver for them.