Drought Hub

The Hon. G.G. BROCK (Stuart) (14:27): My question is to the minister representing the Minister for Primary Industries. Can the minister advise my constituents how many drought hubs are working in the drought-impacted regions, how many councils are involved and will they continue to be maintained in their current form and current locations?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (14:28): I thank the member for Stuart for his question. It is a really important one, given the context of the current drought and not only the substantial package of support that the Malinauskas government has committed to support drought-affected communities across our state but also given some of the supports that have been triggered from the commonwealth government.

I am advised that the South Australian Drought Hub is one of eight established across the nation through the Australian government's Future Drought Fund. Led by the University of Adelaide, in partnership with the state government's Department of Primary Industries and Regions, the Drought Hub comprises the hub headquarters at Roseworthy and five regional nodes. They are at Minnipa on Eyre Peninsula, Port Augusta, Orroroo, Loxton and Struan in the South-East.

The locations of these nodes ensures that we have pretty close to statewide coverage of pastoral low, medium and high-rainfall agricultural production zones. The Drought Hub focuses on the adoption of a number of tools to assist farmers become more drought and climate resilient, as well as to deal with a lot of the pressures that they are currently under given the historically low levels of rainfall that our state has been experiencing.

As part of the $73 million that the Malinauskas government has committed for supporting drought-affected communities—and farmers, in particular—$17.4 million of that is committed for Future Drought Fund programs. PIRSA will continue to work with those partners that I mentioned before, the commonwealth government and the University of Adelaide. As to the people working in the Drought Hub, I have not been made aware of any forecasted changes to staffing levels or locations but, should that be something that is considered, not only will we update the house but we will obviously let the member for Stuart as well as other members of parliament who represent our regions across South Australia know, so that they understand any changes and what the reasons are for those changes.

To reassure the house, the advice I have received is that they try to ensure that these hubs and the nodes are located in those communities that are feeling the sharpest effects of the drought conditions. Should that change, hopefully it changes as a result of the different needs of communities across South Australia. Given how much funding the state government has provided to it and the fact that it’s co-funded with the commonwealth, those changes will not be informed by any sort of reduction of resources: it will be an allocation in order to better meet community need.