Drought Assistance

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (15:04): My question is to the Premier. Is South Australia drought ready? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr TELFER: It was reported on 13 October that one of the worst droughts in memory is set to strip billions of dollars from the state economy and some grain producers will go without an income for two years because their crops are so bad.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries) (15:04): I thank the member for his question, because as a member representing a regional rural community he is acutely aware, like some of his colleagues who also represent regional communities, of the extraordinary impact that primary producers in those communities are suffering and, as a result, many other people in their community whose livelihoods are so closely related to the land.

The member for Flinders asks: are primary producers drought ready? He would know this better than me, but I'm not sure anyone can ever truly be drought ready. I don't know whether anyone can be ready for a drought because they are so deleterious, they are so impactful on primary producers and the communities in which they live. What we can do, though, is we can be ready to respond to the needs of those communities by trying to identify ways of providing additional support to them through these difficult times. Of course, unfortunately, no-one can make it rain, but what we can try to do is find ways which will make a meaningful difference in the support that can be provided to primary producers as they go through these difficult times.

I have been asked previously in this place, I think by the member for Flinders and maybe the member for Chaffey as well, about what impacts the government is aware of. It's not just drought; I think also frost conditions have exacerbated these circumstances that many primary producers are experiencing. We had already made it clear that the very first port of call that the government can provide for primary producers suffering under these very difficult conditions is to provide them with better direct support, so those on-farm and in-community counselling services, to make sure that in the first instance primary producers can get direct support and also be made aware of other supports that are available to them, which, at the very least, is the first step that the state government can take.

We are also, of course, making sure that that Department of Primary Industries and Regions is not only speaking directly to primary producers and their representatives across South Australia, but liaising closely with the commonwealth government as well to make sure that not just state government supports can be considered and deployed as quickly as possible but also we can make the case that the federal government is able to make those supports available.

I know that my colleague in the other place, the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, is dealing with this on a daily basis and, as far as I am aware, she and the rest of the government are grateful to those members, including those members opposite, who have raised the concerns of their local communities and made those representations on behalf of primary producers within their electorates. Really importantly, for the benefit of the government—and I don't just mean the elected government but also the Public Service—they have been able to particularise exactly how those conditions are being experienced by primary producers. That puts us in a better position to be able to respond more meaningfully when we understand not only what the impacts are but the needs that are generated by those impacts.

So the member for Hammond, the member for Finniss, the member for Chaffey, the member for Flinders and others, they are not the only ones who have raised this. The government is very grateful for their advocacy; it is making an impact and the government will have more to say about this in the not too distant future.