House of Assembly Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1) 55 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Cease Harvest Threshold Cease Harvest Threshold Mr PEDERICK House of Assembly Hammond Cease Harvest Threshold Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (14:31): My question is to the Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services. Can the minister update the house on the proposed changes to the cease harvest threshold in the grain harvest code? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain. Leave granted. Mr PEDERICK House of Assembly Hammond Mr PEDERICK: The opposition has been advised that the CFS has been seeking to reduce the Grassland Fire Danger Index cease harvest threshold, a matter of great concern to many growers whose livelihoods and wellbeing would be impacted by such a change. The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS House of Assembly Cheltenham Minister for Trade and Investment Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services Minister for Local Government Minister for Veterans Affairs The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS (Cheltenham—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services) (14:32): I am very happy to inform the house, as I did the member just before question time, that the suggestion of a proposal is a mischaracterisation of the outcome. I am very pleased to advise that the cease harvest code is remaining unchanged. There has been an exchange of correspondence, I believe, at some stage in the last 24 hours between the CFS and Grain Producers. I really want to take the opportunity to thank the CFS and Grain Producers SA for their engagement on this matter, both parties. I think it goes without saying that the CFS do an extraordinary job in working with local regional communities and peri-urban communities to keep their own communities safe during fire danger season, the least of which are the additional risks involved at any given time through primary production and harvest, for that matter, during the fire season. I also want to thank and recognise the commitment of Grain Producers and Primary Producers to always, in every instance, ensure that harvest is safe. The decision taken by the CFS is one that I fully endorse, one that I was very pleased to be able to put directly to Grain Producers SA recently. It was my view that the acknowledgement from both sides of this very important public safety matter was one of, first and foremost in primacy, community safety. I think the decision undertaken, or the decision arrived at, by the Chief Officer of the CFS is one that is sound. It is one that I trust Primary Producers, Grain Producers and farmers more broadly will support wholeheartedly and one that I was very pleased to inform the member for Hammond about, himself a primary producer.