Premier's Export Awards

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (14:54): My question is to the Minister for Trade and Investment. Minister, would you please update the house on how the Marshall Liberal government is contributing to the COVID recovery in South Australia through export?

The Hon. S.J.R. PATTERSON (Morphett—Minister for Trade and Investment) (14:54): I thank the member for Chaffey. We have talked before about the importance of his region's exporters to South Australia. It was great to visit that region with the member for Chaffey at the start of the year, and I look forward to visiting his electorate later this year because there is no doubt that the exporters in his electorate have been hit hard not only by COVID and the challenges around international travel and how the global supply chain has been disrupted but also market access issues into some of our key trading partners—China especially.

Many exporters here in South Australia are working really hard despite these challenges because they know that helps grow their business and employs South Australians. It is really important that we celebrate their hard work, and that is why very recently we had the first Premier's South Australian Export Awards right here at the National Wine Centre. The theme of these awards was to recognise and to honour our South Australian exporters who have achieved outstanding successes and sustainable growth through innovation and commitment to help grow the South Australian economy.

Certainly, that theme encapsulates the importance of supporting our exporters, which is what the Marshall government certainly does here to help them make connections in a year when connections have never been so difficult. By naming these awards the Premier's Export Awards and giving his personal endorsement, it certainly highlights the importance that not only the Premier but this government places on exports to help grow the South Australian economy, to help to support South Australian businesses and ultimately jobs growth.

These awards recognised the cream of South Australian exporters, but there are hundreds of these businesses throughout South Australia—small businesses, medium businesses—and, of course, they employ thousands and thousands of South Australians, and they go towards helping grow exports. I spoke last time we were in parliament about our July export figures hitting a state record of $13 billion, and that is after previous months hitting records as well.

It is great to be able to inform the house today that the merchandise export figures for the 12 months to August again hit a new state record: $13.2 billion. This is a massive flow of money coming into the economy. It is $2 billion up on this time last year, which is a credit to all the hard work that South Australian businesses have put towards their exporting, and I commend them and acknowledge their hard work.

I talked about the Premier's Export Awards, and we acknowledge some of those exporters. In the Agribusiness, Food and Beverages category Accolade Wines won for their hard work, exporting into the UK to help them expand. From a professional services point of view we had CMAX Clinical Research. Their exports are up 94 per cent in the 2020-21year. They won the award for professional services.

Also, importantly, we acknowledge sustainability—making sure that, when they export, they are sustainable as well—and REDARC Electronics is a key industry manufacturing business here in South Australia. They have reduced their carbon emissions by installing solar panels. They won the award for sustainability. Previously I have spoken about the award winner in the Manufacturing and Advanced Materials category, Lightforce Australia, which is really working to onshore their manufacturing here in Australia. That allows them to prototype and speed up route-to-market as well as production.

The Creative Industries category was won by Mighty Kingdom. They provide games to more than 50 million players worldwide, including to massive global companies such as Disney and Lego. In the Advanced Technologies category, Fivecast won for their AI-enabled security platform. They have experienced a 375 per cent export growth recently.

Overall, the winner of the Premier's South Australian Exporter of the Year Award was Accolade Wines, again taking into account the key challenges that we have had from COVID and market access issues into China. Congratulations to all of them. They are going to be a key route for our economy to recover from the pandemic by export. We congratulate them, and we know that by the Marshall Liberal government backing these exporters it will help them to grow their jobs and grow their businesses, which is good for all South Australians.