Drought Assistance

The Hon. G.G. BROCK (Stuart) (14:34): My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer advise my electorate if the government will consider providing any transport subsidies for livestock feed as a result of the current drought conditions across certain parts of the state? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain further.

Leave granted.

The Hon. G.G. BROCK: I have been contacted by many farmers in my region in the electorate of Stuart, and also other areas of the state, providing me with information about the current drought conditions. They have asked me if the government will provide any form of support, such as transport subsidies, to assist in the provision of fodder feed for their livestock.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries) (14:35): Can I thank the member for Stuart for raising this matter in this place, because I know that he has been contacted by many of his constituents, as well as other primary producers around the state, knowing his record as a minister for primary industries and regions and his long track record of supporting South Australia's regions. They are therefore contacting the member for Stuart about what capacity there is to assist farmers through the conditions which have been plaguing them in recent months, as we previously canvassed in this place. I thank him for the question and, in particular, raising the issue of transport subsidies for providing feed for primary producers.

Mr Speaker, you will probably be aware that at different times in the past, in different places around the country, similar schemes have been introduced where transport subsidies have been provided by government agencies to encourage and to facilitate donations of feed and produce from primary producers in one region to primary producers in another region.

Of course, Mr Speaker, you would be familiar with this because it was part of the response package after the bushfires on Kangaroo Island in the 2019-20 year that you were instrumental in playing a role in organising it. It is in that vein that the member for Stuart raises whether there is the potential to do that.

I can advise the house that I am aware that the Minister for Primary Industries, the Hon. Clare Scriven in the other place, has been working with the primary industries department, as well as representatives of the industry, as to how a scheme might work. It is not quite so simple, Mr Speaker, as I am sure you are aware, as just providing a transport subsidy for anyone who is transporting feed from one region to another because what we are trying to encourage is the donation of feed by primary producers who are in circumstances to be able to provide that donation to primary producers in other regions.

We want any support, financial support, to genuinely assist those charitable activities rather than just provide blanket financial support for commercial operators. They are working through that. There is a strong relationship that has been developed, I think, between the primary industries department and the organisations that were previously involved in establishing this scheme. My advice is that we are still working through that, and I hope to be in a position to advise the member and his constituents, and also the house, in the not too distant future.