World Milk Day

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (11:41): I move:

That this house—

(a) acknowledges that 1 June 2025 is World Milk Day which celebrates the dairy farming industry round the world and its vital role in agriculture globally;

(b) recognises the importance of milk, cheese, yoghurt and other dairy foods as a nutritious part of a healthy balanced diet;

(c) notes that the dairy sector’s responsible livestock and food production regulations continue to ensure the highest quality milk and dairy products;

(d) acknowledges the dairy industry’s essential contribution to jobs, agricultural research, technological advancements, rural community support and the economy; and

(e) further recognises the wonderful South Australian dairy farmers and their employees who underpin our magnificent South Australian dairy industry.

The dairy industry is a very passionate group of people and certainly I, as a former dairy farmer, am very passionate about dairy farming and I am very privileged to be able to celebrate the dairy industry here today. World Milk Day is very much recognising not just how important milk is to the world but how much the dairy industry worldwide actually underpins many of the things in our diet that we consume. This year's slogan was to 'celebrate the power of dairy', and I think that is a great thing.

As we reflect right now, our dairy farmers here in South Australia are certainly struggling through some very tough climatic conditions and it is something that has made me very much reflect back on my memory of the millennium drought and it was a very tough time. But the drought that we are currently going through is worse than that. I very much remember as a farmer that, at that point in time, we were milking about 450 cows in similar climatic circumstances to where we are right now, in June. We had a late opening to the season which meant we did not have any grass growing that was producing much feed at all. That meant we were buying all the feed in, so we were buying grain and hay in.

Grain was certainly something that we supplementary fed right throughout the year, but hay we would normally not feed into June, for example; we would normally have enough pasture on the farm. Going back into those drought times, as I said, I very much reflect on that time, milking 450 cows. Just to keep the cows fed in that time, we were requiring 2½ semi loads of hay a week. When you think about that, that is what people are now having to do right at this moment in South Australia to keep their dairy herds going and get through to the grass actually having time to grow, to be long enough to actually consume.

We are seeing those farmers having to purchase feed. My memory of it was it got to the point where you actually got past worrying about whether you could even pay for the feed: it got to the point of worrying where you were going to find the feed. We see that occurring again now. I recently attended a dinner in Victor Harbor celebrating a donation of feed from the Need for Feed organisation, which had delivered 16 semi loads of donated hay down to the Fleurieu Peninsula. They had invited farmers to attend the dinner, and it was great to see the people there being recognised.

But when you think about the number of dairy farmers on the Fleurieu, it is more than 16 per se. Yes, the donation was helpful, but there is a long way to meeting the needs of what the farmers have to find. Throughout that evening, it was outlined that the cost of feed has gone absolutely through the roof. Basically, there is no hay available to be purchased in South Australia, New South Wales or Victoria, which means the only hay that can be sourced to get into South Australia at the moment is coming from either Queensland or WA. They both cost roughly the same to get here from either direction, and the quotes that the Need for Feed organisation was giving for getting this hay into the country were quite scary.

What you would normally buy here in a normal supply year is $150 a tonne and then cartage on top of that. Over there, the price people are now having to pay is between $400 and $500 a tonne in Western Australia, and then the cartage to actually get it here from WA either using triple road trains or putting it on trains is in the vicinity of $500 a tonne. That is getting close to $1,000 a tonne delivered to farm when farmers would have normally been paying in the high hundreds, $200 to $250 a tonne, delivered. The effect is absolutely mind-blowing when you are getting 2½ half semi loads a week, which is roughly 50 tonnes. It is quite scary for the industry out there at the moment.

Just reflecting on the great things of our industry, dairy is the third largest rural industry in Australia. It produces 8.376 billion litres, worth about $6.2 billion. There are just under 4,000 dairy farmers nationally. There are about 1.3 million cows nationally, and the industry across the country employs over 31,000 people. Interestingly on the consumer side, dairy is certainly still an important part of the diet.

We have dropped off the peak consumption of a couple of decades ago and are now only consuming 88 litres of milk per person per year, but we are also consuming 12.5 kilos of cheese and 3.4 kilos of butter as well as 10 kilos of yoghurt. It is a really important part of our diet and really important in helping people manage osteoporosis and things like that, to make sure we keep our bone densities up. The calcium from dairy is a wonderful source.

The dairy industry is also a significant exporter, and China still is a large and very important buyer of dairy from Australia. Over 185,000 tonnes are exported to China, with Japan being a distant second at just under 72,000 tonnes being exported across there. Those are two significant markets that are still part of the Australian industry.

It is also interesting to see the huge changes that have occurred in a relatively short period of time. Across the country, back in 1990 there were about 15,500 dairy farms but, as I said, we are down to under 4,000 now. In a relatively short period of time it has been a dramatic change, but we have seen the total consumption by the consumer go the other way. Back in 1990, total consumption of all dairy products was about 245 litres equivalent, and now it is just under 300.

We have also seen a huge variation in total milk production across the country in that time. Back in 1990 we were producing only 6,300 million litres. We went up to a peak in about 2000, just as the deregulation of the industry occurred, and were sitting at 10.8 billion litres. We have now dropped back to 8.4 billion litres. It is quite a changing industry, as things have changed in the structures of the industry.

Here in South Australia we have also seen those changes. Back in 2011 there were 275 dairy farmers in the state—and I was one of those—but we are now down to only 170. We have seen even more dramatic changes in places like Victoria, which have gone from 4,500 down to 2,500—so they have lost 2,000 dairy farmers in that same timeframe. Likewise, cow numbers here in South Australia were at 76,000 cows in the state producing milk and we are now down to 64,000. In Victoria it was over 1.1 million and they are now down to 825,000. So there have been dramatic changes across the industry, and we need to keep an eye on these changes.

The changes are also reflected in farm management itself. We are seeing significant changes in cow production that has occurred over the last close to 50 years. Cow production in South Australia has gone from just under 3,200 litres per cow per year to what is now the highest in the country of nearly 7,400 litres per cow per year. South Australia has very much taken the lead in being able to get very efficient cows and turning feed into large volumes of milk. We have a wonderful industry here in South Australia.

We are seeing changes actually occurring on farm in terms of how they are structured. As they manage the changes in milk price that have been there, they also need to change how they do things. Back in 2010, which is about the time of the dollar milk campaign, milk prices were at 38¢ a litre. If you adjust that for inflation, in today's money that is about 53¢ a litre. At the moment farmers are getting just a bit over 70¢ a litre, which certainly looks like a great improvement, but costs have eaten away at that margin as well.

So, it is not as clear as a significant price rise that has led to a wonderful outcome. It is still putting on huge pressure, as I mentioned, particularly in a year like this where feed has been quite a difficult thing for people to find. The problem with dairying is that they are actually right at their breeding levels. They cannot reduce their numbers without actually reducing their ability to recover following the drought, so farmers are left with very few options but to actually try to keep finding that feed and making sure they keep their production up, because otherwise they have enormous effects on their potential going forward.

I think some of the most exciting stuff that I am seeing in the industry is something that has happened since I have left, and that is the adoption of robotics into dairy farming. I had the privilege of recently opening a new robotic dairy in Mount Compass, owned by the Jacobs family and the Hicks family. They have done an amazing thing transitioning that farm to robotics, where the cows get to choose what time they would like to be milked. They come in about 2½ times a day to the dairy.

The cows have, amazingly, in a very short period of time, completely changed how they react to people. That day there were a couple of hundred people wandering around, and if that was an ordinary dairy the cows would be a bit skittish and jumpy but the cows completely ignored all the people and were completely relaxed by the whole experience. The farmers themselves were relaxed because they do not have to do the milking themselves.

The great improvement is the data that the farmers can now work with that is coming from the collection as each cow comes in. They know how much each cow is doing and they are able to monitor their health by milk yields and all those sorts of things and whether the cow has turned up when she was expected or not. So it is changing the industry enormously.

The SPEAKER (11:57): Before I call the next speaker, I would like to thank the member for Finniss for bringing this motion to the house and commend him for his work on farm and off farm. When I was the Minister for Agriculture, the member for Finniss was leading, first of all, the state dairy body and then the national dairy body and did a great job in communicating with governments the need of dairy farmers in South Australia and further afield.

The dairy industry is what got me into politics. I learned to lobby on a dairy farm from the age of five. I had worked out it was the smelliest job and the hardest work that you could ever possibly do. Growing up on a dairy farm down at Glencoe in the South-East, you would just get to the beach, you would have your first swim, build your first sandcastle and you would be packed back in the car to go milk again, and you would say, 'But we just milked.' So I was into my dad saying, 'If you want someone to take over the farm, it is not going to be me.' In 1976 I was 10, we moved off the farm, we moved to Adelaide, and I had learnt a valuable lesson in how to lobby.

Then in the lead-up to that 2006 election, Pat Conlon goes, 'Rob Brokenshire is a dairy farmer in Mawson. We should run a dairy farmer's son against him.' I have absolutely zero credibility in the dairy world, but I have the utmost admiration for everyone who goes out there and works hard in economies that never seem to work in favour of the dairy farmers. So, again, I commend you for all your work. member for Finniss, and thanks for bringing this motion to the house.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (11:58): One of the great privileges of being a member of parliament is getting the opportunity to meet so many people across South Australia and hear their stories, learn from them about what they do, what they are interested in, what they are passionate about, what motivates them. Also, from time to time, hopefully, you get the opportunity to try to do something to assist them in their endeavours or in what interests them. That is particularly the case for someone like me who has spent all of their life living in the metropolitan area of Adelaide, having the opportunity from time to time to get out of Adelaide and meet so many South Australians from across our regions who are delivering, not just really important economic activity, but the goods—in this case, the food—that people rely on so much across our state.

I have had that opportunity to some small extent with the dairy industry—in particular because of the member for Finniss, the member for Hammond and also the person the Speaker referred to earlier, the former member for Mawson, the Hon. Robert Brokenshire—in recent times.

It was the member for Finniss and the member for Hammond who drew my attention to the difficulties that the dairy industry was having, not just generally because of the economic challenges that the member for Finniss just mentioned or even the drought conditions that have been confronting dairy farmers for well over a year now but particularly because of the collapse of Beston Global Food, a major purchaser of milk from the South Australian dairy industry—in particular, my understanding is, from the dairy farmers reasonably close to where Beston Global Food was operating at Murray Bridge.

That company's collapse left 42 dairy farmers owed more than $10 million collectively, which is a huge amount of money across a relatively small number of farmers to be left without in that climate of challenging drought conditions and challenging economic circumstances that the member for Finniss referred to earlier.

I am very grateful to the member for Finniss—particularly given his experience as the leader of firstly the South Australian dairy industry and then also the national dairy industry—and the member for Hammond for making me aware of this and starting that process of educating me in some of the very basics about the industry and, hopefully, what an opportunity might be for the government to try to provide some support in some way to help the dairy farmers get through this difficult circumstance of being owed so much money by a company that has now gone into administration.

I had the opportunity to go out and visit Rob Brokenshire's farm just outside of Mount Compass. It is a really impressive facility. It was not so impressive seeing what the dry climate conditions had done to his land, but it was really impressive to see the amount of money he and his family have invested in the operations there: what looked to me like a very sophisticated, mechanised and automated milking set-up which fortunately would preclude a politician like me from having to attempt the task of milking, not just because—

Mr Basham: Christopher Pyne did.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Christopher Pyne did; I also remember the former member for Heysen, Isobel Redmond, did it, to much fame. But I try not to get involved in demonstrations after my mishaps with a stuffed kangaroo. I learned early that it is best to be a spectator in these sorts of activities rather than a participant.

But I have to admit that while I am an extraordinary consumer of dairy products, in particular cheese and to a lesser extent yoghurt, I do not tend to make a practice of drinking dairy milk often. I made the extraordinary faux pas of telling Rob Brokenshire that I drink almond milk. He said, 'It's not milk, it's juice! It's almond juice!' All I could think of, of course, was the scene from Meet the Parents when the putative son-in-law was trying to demonstrate how he could milk various domesticated animals in his household, to no success.

I have had the opportunity to learn a little bit about the industry and, most importantly, understand the challenges that they have come to. It is on the back of the representations and the advocacy—particularly from the member for Finniss, the member for Hammond and also Robert Brokenshire—that the government put together a package to try to provide some interim support to those 42 dairy farmers. It is a grant program to be administered by the dairy association with the support of the South Australian Financing Authority within Treasury to try to provide a bit of financial support: $3 million for those 42 farmers.

It will not repay all of the money. It is not designed to. It is meant to try to help them through the period while Beston Global Food is going through administration and try to make sure that they are hopefully able to keep going when the climate conditions improve and also hopefully the trading conditions improve with being able to sell milk to an entity that is not going to let them down as badly as Beston Global Food did.

I want to thank the member for Finniss for bringing the motion to the house and for giving the house the opportunity to recognise the extraordinary contribution that the industry makes. But I did want to put on record my personal thanks as well as the government's appreciation for the advocacy and the effort that the member for Finniss and the member for Hammond have put in in recent months to raise this to the government's attention to the point where we felt motivated to act.

Ms PRATT (Frome) (12:05): I also want to make a contribution in recognition that 1 June was World Milk Day. We have this opportunity to reflect on the dairy industry because of the motion that has been brought by the member for Finniss. I, too, recognise his significant experience and expertise in this space, noting not just his advocacy in this chamber but also the contributions that are frequently made by my colleague the member for Hammond and, as we have heard from other contributors, the significant political and industry advocacy that Robert Brokenshire has also brought to the dairy industry.

It is, of course, an industry that is a key contributor to the state's agriculture and economy. An industry annual report coined the phrase 'from grass to glass', noting that it is a billion dollar industry across the supply chain, where South Australian production contributes about 5½ per cent to national milk production.

We know that thousands of South Australians are employed in the dairy sector, on farms, in processing, transport, freight and retail. We also note that the South Australian dairy sector is certainly a hub for agricultural innovation and research, adopting cutting edge technologies. I hope to reflect on an example of that in just a moment.

The member for Finniss addressed the challenge that the drought has brought to not just grain hay producers, grape growers and livestock, meat and sheep growers but the dairy industry as well. When you think of the Mid North, you might not quickly think of dairies in a dry area. But with great pride from my little hometown of Blyth, I get to reflect on and recognise the industrious and innovative approach that Gary, Ros and Justin Zweck bring to their dairy just north of Blyth. It is the most northern milk-producing dairy in South Australia.

By virtue of their isolation from others in the dairy industry across the state, given the sometimes dry, dusty and often hot summers that we know occur around Blyth in the Mid North, they have had to be innovative. They have had to be industrious. They have had to rethink their model of practice. Planning for successive generations to come, Justin and his partner, Brydie, are now really front and centre in the running of the dairy. That innovation and industriousness has actually come from the old adage that necessity is the mother of all invention.

While I have had the privilege to visit their property a number of times, it was in September 2016 during the statewide blackout that I was connected to Ros and Gary in an extraordinary way. While the state was grappling with the blackout and the lack of energy, and people in the city were under threat of traffic lights out in terrible weather and people were fossicking around for candles, torches and camping lanterns, there was no power for Gary and Ros's cows.

To be on site the next day and to hear the story of how they worked their way through that dark, black, rainy, miserable evening—their first thought, naturally, was for the welfare of their cows. At that time, without the voluntary milking systems based on robotic technology, those cows were not going to be able to milk themselves, so the call-around that night across the whole state was for generators.

I will never forget the visual and mental impact of being on the ground the next morning and understanding what it meant through the night to have to source generators in the dark that were required for two things: firstly, the cows just needed to be milked, and power was required for that, so generators were sourced from other farmers so that the cows could be relieved of that pressure and could be milked. But the vision that was captured by media and can still be found, I am sure, was the devastation of all the work going into sourcing a generator to milk the cow, only to watch the milk be poured down the drain, literally, because there was not enough generation to refrigerate that milk.

The welfare of the cows was front and centre for Gary and Ros, but there was not enough power to refrigerate their product and they would have lost so much money in that moment in time. So it was a visual that stuck with me. From that experience, where necessity was the mother of all invention, they have gone on to invest in themselves, invest in their business and invest in their family to build a really large herringbone shed for their 300 head of cattle for the more than two million litres of milk they produce a year, and to embed that practice now around the ag technology that we heard about in a previous address from the member for Morphett when he was reflecting on the space sector.

The innovation, design and invention that comes from defence and space that washes back through to the farming industry and gives us agtech has allowed a family business like the Zwecks' to invest in the voluntary milking systems and robotics that are now in place. Six robotic milking machines assist them to manage their lives and the welfare of their cows in a much better way. Gary reflects on the change that has made to their household with these words, saying that the benefits of the robotics systems far outweighed any of the challenges that they faced:

I'm not getting up at 3am and going off to milk cows and then watching the clock and milking them again at 3pm like I was.

He said:

The lifestyle benefits are fantastic and I'm a lot more relaxed. We've got an app on our phones that alerts us if there are any problems.

I am really proud of the Zweck family and the innovation that they have established in their industry, where they exist as the most northern milk producers in South Australia. I am delighted that the motion that has been brought by the member for Finniss—through his leadership, advocacy, knowledge, expertise and wise words in laying out this motion—has allowed a number of us to speak to this motion today. I commend the motion.

Ms HUTCHESSON (Waite) (12:13): I rise today in support of this motion for World Milk Day, held globally on 1 June every year to celebrate the remarkable contribution of the dairy industry to agriculture, health and economic development both here in South Australia and across the world, and I thank the member for Finniss for bringing the motion to the house. It is not political, it is practical, and it is important. It asks us as a parliament to recognise the enormous value that dairy brings to our lives and our state's prosperity.

Let's begin with the basics: dairy foods—milk, cheese, yoghurt and butter and, as a side note, cottage cheese, which is having a rebirth at the moment thanks to the excellent TikTok health experts that has even me putting it in my scrambled eggs. It is the new super food. Try it out.

Dairy foods are the cornerstone of a healthy balanced diet. For children, dairy supports strong bones, teeth and growth. For adults, it aids muscle health, metabolism and nutrition absorption, and for older Australians, dairy helps combat osteoporosis, preventing fractures and supporting active independent ageing. From toddlers to grandparents, dairy sustains life with calcium, protein, vitamin D, B12 and potassium, all nutrients that our bodies need to function well.

Dairy does not just keep us healthy, it keeps South Australia strong. In the 2023-24 financial year, South Australian dairies produced over 474 million litres of milk, contributing more than $755 million of revenue to our economy. Our state accounts for approximately 10 per cent of Australia's total milk production and we punch well above our weight in both quality and innovation.

We have around 170 to 180 dairy farms across the Barossa, Adelaide Hills, Fleurieu, Murray region and the South-East, farms run by hardworking families who rise before dawn every day of the year to care for their animals and to bring us the highest quality milk and dairy products. In addition to fresh milk, South Australia is becoming renowned for its value-added dairy products, especially cheese.

In the past year alone, the value of South Australian dairy products rose to $127 million thanks in large part to an 80 per cent surge in cheese exports. Brands like Woodside Cheese Wrights, led by the renowned Kris Lloyd, are creating award-winning cheeses that showcase local milk and native flavours, from the floral Monet chevre to the unforgettable Anthill cheese, which uses native green ants. These are not just delicious, they are telling the story of South Australia to the world.

At Paris Creek Farms, based in the Adelaide Hills, we see organic, biodynamic and dairy production at its best. Their milk, yoghurt and butter are free from chemicals and preservatives, and they are produced with an unwavering commitment to animal welfare and to environmental sustainability.

Of course, you cannot talk about dairy in South Australia without mentioning an icon: Farmers Union Iced Coffee. First launched in 1977, it is more than a beverage, it is a cultural institution. At one point, Farmers Union Iced Coffee was outselling Coca-Cola in South Australia by 3:1, a statistic unmatched anywhere else in the world, building strong bones across the country. It is deeply woven into our identity and speaks to the pride South Australians take in supporting local dairy.

Beyond the brands and statistics, our dairy industry is about people: it is about generational farming families, it is about skilled workers, veterinarians, food technologists, researchers and transporters. It is about small towns that survive and thrive because of the economic activity dairy brings. It is keeping schools open, keeping shops trading and keeping communities connected.

That is why the government has worked closely with the industry to launch the South Australian Dairy Industry Action Plan 2024-29, a clear commitment to supporting the sector through innovation, research, workforce development and market expansion This plan sets out a strategic road map to help dairy producers adapt to climate change, to improve productivity, reduce emissions and build stronger links to consumers at home and abroad. The action plan lists 10 specific objectives:

to grow South Australia's production of milk to 700 million litres to meet growing demand;

the continued development of South Australian product as a premium product;

to increase reach into Asia to develop markets for South Australian dairy;

the development of world-class traceability systems using distributed ledgers and blockchain technology;

the creation of an industry centre of excellence;

a strong focus on sustainability, dovetailing on Australia's excellent reputation as the best, clean, green natural supplier of dairy products, while positioning SA as being recognised as the best of the best;

demonstrating that South Australia has the highest animal welfare standards;

working with the South Australian government as it outlines its strategic direction for South Australia;

development of career paths, training models and succession plans for the future of the industry; and

promoting the industry as an industry with prospects.

The state government will continue to work diligently with the industry assisting them to achieve these goals over the next five years.

This Dairy Action Plan is a wonderful example of an industry-led initiative that aspires to help the sector grow through many ways, including increasing their market share both domestically and internationally, a desire for South Australia to be the go-to Australian jurisdiction and premium dairy and dairy products from buyers around the world and to invest in the latest research and development through the Dairy Centre for Excellence. All these initiatives will help ensure growers are profitable and the industry continues to grow.

In more recent times, the state government has worked closely with the SA Dairyfarmers' Association to ensure dairy farmers impacted by the collapse of Beston Global Food will receive financial support through a state government assistance program. The state government committed $3 million for the establishment of the support package to be administered by the SA Dairyfarmers' Association with the support of SAFA to help farmers left out of pocket re-establish themselves and grow.

The sector is constantly evolving and learning to tackle new issues through initiatives such as the annual DairySA Innovation Day, which focuses on important themes ranging from sustainability to agtech and emissions reductions. Our state's dairy industry is valued for its significant economic contribution as well as its premium products, which are supplied around Australia and the world, and the Malinauskas Labor government is committed to continuing to work closely to ensure the industry's sustained growth.

One of the hallmarks of South Australia's dairy industry is its commitment to quality and safety. Through world-class regulations, our consumers can be confident in the safety, traceability and ethical standards behind every litre of milk and every block of cheese. The sector continues to embrace new technology, from robotic milking systems to feed optimisation and waste reduction strategies. It is not a static or old-fashioned industry; it is a dynamic and forward-thinking one, leading the way in sustainable agriculture.

We should never take this industry for granted. At a time when global food security is a pressing concern, when climate pressures affect production systems, and when consumers demand transparency and sustainability, the South Australian dairy industry stands as a beacon of resilience, quality and care. So today, on World Milk Day, I say thank you to the dairy farmers of South Australia.

Thank you to the employees, the processors, the researchers and the innovators. Thank you to those who have invested in new technology, cared for their herds, trained apprentices and driven trucks to make sure milk gets from the farm to the fridge. You are helping to feed the state, support our economy and represent the very best of what regional South Australia can do. I commend this motion to the house wholeheartedly, and I hope every member raises a glass—of milk, of course—in support of this essential, proud and growing industry. I commend the motion to the house.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (12:21): I rise to support this motion by the member for Finniss:

That this house—

(a) acknowledges that 1 June 2025 is World Milk Day which celebrates the dairy farming industry round the world and its vital role in agriculture globally;

(b) recognises the importance of milk, cheese, yoghurt and other dairy foods as a nutritious part of a healthy balanced diet;

(c) notes that the dairy sector’s responsible livestock and food production regulations continue to ensure the highest quality milk and dairy products;

(d) acknowledges the dairy industry’s essential contribution to jobs, agricultural research, technological advancements, rural community support and the economy; and

(e) further recognises the wonderful South Australian dairy farmers and their employees who underpin our magnificent South Australian dairy industry.

At a very young age in the early seventies (that is showing my age a little bit) prior to going to school—and school was only three kilometres away—we would either milk one or two cows in the morning, and sometimes you would do that on your own. I had an older sister and two younger brothers, so they would have been involved as well. That was something we did in the mornings before school and when we got home after school. There was a benefit because what we also did was separate the cream from the milk at times and the skim milk got fed to some pigs that we grew to get our first motorbike, which from memory was a Suzuki 175. We did get some reward for our efforts, apart from getting that lovely fresh warm milk straight from the cows, the Friesian cows that we milked.

The dairy industry is a vital industry to this state and they, like other farmers, have had an extremely difficult time of late with the drought. Locally, other suppliers that have supplied Beston Food in recent times were basically done over when Beston fell over. Beston went into receivership for over $10 million. This was a huge hit for those 42 dairy farmers who were doing their best and supplying their milk to these two factories at Murray Bridge and Jervois in my electorate, thinking they would get paid. I personally spoke to two of those 42 farmers, who lost around $800,000 each. Just think about that. Whatever capacity you are in, if you lose $800,000, that is a lot of money.

In fact, one of those farmers gave me another phone call and said he had to put off five or six staff, because he just had to scale back after that great loss, and was unable to get feed and had to sell some of his cows. It has had a massive hit on their business, but that family will pull through. I have known them a long time and they have had to deal with the River Murray drought in times gone past as well.

It is just the nature of the beast and sadly it is compounded, not just with the drought but with what has happened at those factories, at Jervois and Murray Bridge, just in my time, which would be close on 20 years in this place. I think there have been three changes of ownership. I am certainly not very pleased with how some of those changes of ownership have happened and how some of the management has been in regard to this.

When Murray Goulburn left and got rid of the business at Jervois, they basically took the oxytorch and the angle grinders to the plant so that no-one else could utilise it, which is just sheer vandalism and an outrageous waste of resources. Companies had spent many millions of dollars, especially in more recent times before that, to get the different plant up, whether it was involved with whey powder or other areas of the milk production industry. It was just an absolute disgrace.

At Beston's, the plant was supposed to be the platinum thing of taking lactoferrin out of the milk and really pave the way. We were told, 'this is going to be the thing,' and for whatever reason, that did not work.

Our dairy farmers do a magnificent job and it is not just during drought. They also, 2½ years ago had to get through the River Murray floods. There was a lot of innovation being done for people to just milk their cows. They would have to shift their herds to use dairies further on high ground. One operation was using the robotic method. Their robots were on the wrong side and they had to retrieve them and move the robots. These are not simple machines. I am not sure, but from memory I think these robots are worth about $250,000 each.

I ran into this robotic technology a few years ago now down in the South-East, near Mount Gambier, and it is a completely different version of milking. Nowadays the bigger dairies might have 700 or 800 cows and you run them into a huge herringbone set-up which is milking side by side, or the rotating platforms, which are quite a common milking process now. When you look at look at how the robot works, it is a milking-on-demand scenario where the cows are trained up and they know to walk towards the machine and they have identification systems at work, so they know which cow is being milked, etc. It is amazing.

What you rely on is the 24-hour tech support, which I am sure is in place right across the state, because if the machines break, as has been indicated before with what the Zweck family have had to do up north, you have to milk the cows. You have to take the pressure off. That tech support is absolutely vital and it does give a new avenue and it gives an extra option. Not everyone embraces the use of robots, but it is that extra option that people can use and, as we have heard, it can make it easier.

It probably saves having as many people on the farm, but many dairy farmers do most of the work themselves and it gives them a bit of a quality of life. I certainly take my hat off to people who have to be on deck very early in the morning and do their other chores during the day. It is not that they can just go and lie down, they have to cart hay and clean sheds out or whatever they need to do during the day and then milk again at night, and that is seven days week. There is no respite and so I certainly salute the dairy farmers.

During the River Murray floods, a dairy farmer at Mannum did an innovative thing. They needed to get generation for their dairy where the fuel tank was located. The generator was put on a floating platform so it could feed the fuel in to make sure that they could keep everything operating on that dairy farm, because it is absolutely vital that you have that power. Some people made no noise about it at all. I heard one farmer invested $1 million during the flood to make sure they could keep operating. They made no public noise about it at all, and that is a lot of money; yes, they are a big operator.

Across the Lower Murray—I might get the numbers slightly wrong—between Mannum and the lakes, there used to be about 130 dairy farms. There are probably about 30 now. There is probably a very similar number of cows but a lot fewer farmers milking those cows. They do a magnificent job. The one thing I will say about the industry—and I have seen it a couple of times now with what has happened at the same plants that are involved at Jervois and Murray Bridge—is that when something happens, the milk finds another home.

That is the beauty of the industry. The industry supports itself in that degree. We saw it years ago when we were a bit concerned about who was going to pick up the milk, and it was all sorted out. Sometimes milk does not go to its contracted buyer, and it is just the way it is. I truly support the milk industry. I support all the work that our dairy farmers do and everyone in the industry. They do great work for this state.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley) (12:32): I, too, rise to support this motion. I want to take the house back to when I was at school, when there was free milk. It was such an important thing, the protein that came with free milk and the fat that came with milk. We were all, of course, very aware of the health benefits of milk, not to mention the free milk program's benefits to the dairy industry's bottom line. I think the free milk program had some very good results in giving families the extra protein that was needed for those children to grow healthy and with strong bones.

We have to also look at what happened in the seventies and the eighties when there was a war on milk. All of a sudden, cream was bad and full-cream milk was bad. We saw non-fat or low-fat this and non-fat or low-fat that. That period coincides with the increase in obesity in the Western countries. It was not just Australia that went on the low-fat pathway: it was every like economy, the United States, the UK. Wherever you went, you could see the light version and the full-cream or the full-fat version.

Unfortunately, in order for the light or the low-fat versions to be of any appeal, they had to give the low-fat milk, the low-fat yoghurts and the low-fat cheeses some additional depth, and they did that with sugar. All of a sudden, we were seeing the replacement of a healthy fat that the brain needs, a healthy fat that people need for energy. There is this misconception out there—due to the low-fat industry—that fat is not energy, that carbohydrates are energy. Unfortunately, increases in carbohydrate, whether they be complex sugars or, even worse, refined sugars or refined carbohydrates, have contributed to an increased spike in type 2 diabetes. People get sugar spikes when they eat high carbohydrate food instead of food that is high in natural fats, whether that be fats from dairy products or fats from other animal products, or alternatively from fruit and vegetables (avocados are obviously a great source and nuts, of course, are another great source of fat).

The damage the low-fat industry did to the minds of many women of my mother's age (who has now sadly passed) was that even as my mother was getting older and older and her muscle mass was deteriorating, she insisted she should be having skim milk because she believed that was healthier. Even when I bought full cream milk home for her it would stay in the fridge until it went off, and she would arrange for it to be replaced with skim milk. She believed that was healthier for her because of that low-fat movement that started in the seventies and grew through the eighties and nineties.

It is really only in recent times that people are realising how important fat and dairy products are for the sustainability of bone density, muscle mass and general health. As people get older, of course, muscle mass deteriorates and bone density deteriorates, and a diet that includes full-fat dairy products is a way of protecting yourself as you get older. A backup for that, of course, are weight bearing exercises—so, a healthy lifestyle.

We can thank Australia's enthusiasm for the dairy industry since European settlement for South Australians generally being quite big people compared to other people in the world. I am sure there are people like the member for Narungga and I, and the member for Hammond, who would not be quite as tall if we did not drink as much milk, full cream milk, when we were growing up, Evidence of that, of course, is my heritage; many Italians tended to have a reputation for being a little bit shorter, and when their children who were born here in Australia had access to the quality and quantity of dairy products we have in Australia, we saw that many of them were so much taller than their parents because of that diet, and access to dairy products, in particular.

I support the member for Finniss's motion, and thank him and his industry for what they have done for the health of South Australians, in particular, for what they have done for the economy, and where they have placed Australia in the pecking order of a quality place to live, a healthy place and a country of opportunity.

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (12:38): I rise in support of the motion that so appropriately has been brought to this house by the member for Finniss. It is rare that such a decorated and long-serving senior contributor to the dairy industry, not only in South Australia but also nationwide, is also a member of this place, and I pay tribute to the member for Finniss for his contribution to the dairy industry in this state, and indeed around the country.

There is no doubt that the industry has been at the heart and soul of what we are proud of in South Australia. Reference has been made to some famous milk products. We know Farmers Union iced coffee is dear to us, just as the SADA milk on the supermarket shelves is a popular choice in South Australia, and I pay tribute to all of those dairy farmers around the state.

This is also something that is near and dear to me locally in the Hills. I have been fortunate since my days as a new candidate rocking up and looking to prove my credentials in the local community to be a participant in the Meadows Country Fair Udder Tug, particularly the Celebrity Udder Tug. As the front pages under frame on my walls attest, I was proud to win the Celebrity Udder Tug on my first outing at the Meadows Country Fair.

I came back to defend my title the following year. Much to my chagrin, I found myself embarrassed by a bucket being kicked over and all sorts of mayhem ensuing and I thought that I had blown it all together, only to find that the local newspaper thought this was even more entertaining than what I thought had been my triumph the previous year. I was doing that having observed the real experts in hand-milking, showing off their skills as the centrepiece for the Meadows Country Fair. We will look forward to getting out there and doing that again in just a few short months from now.

As other members have contributed in the course of this debate, South Australian dairy farmers produce the best milk anywhere in the world, and they do so to contribute in turn to some of the very best dairy products that are produced anywhere in the world. The motion rightly recognises the importance of not only milk but also cheese, yoghurt and other dairy foods.

With that in mind, I want to pay particular tribute to my dear friends Kym and Joanne Masters, who have founded Section28 at Woodside in the Hills. For the last decade or so, they have shown how—literally from scratch—it is possible to learn how to make the best cheese, to source the best local milk and to then produce products that are capable of taking on the world and being awarded on the global stage. Kym Masters, the owner, founder and lead cheesemaker at Section28, has done exactly that.

It is truly a tragedy for this state and for our cheese industry locally, that Section28 has had to indicate that it needs to close its doors. It proves that it is just such a grinding challenge to make a sustained financial success of a business in this space, and we ought to be very conscious of that. They are hardworking dairy farmers every day and those who would value-add to that magnificent product. So I pay tribute to Kym and Joanne Masters for their achievement in leading the way in making world-leading cheeses right here in the Adelaide Hills, and I really hope that there may be a resurgence at some point for that great product. It is truly something that has been built and developed and then demonstrated to all of us, coming from a place of heart and soul and a love for making that very best cheese in the world. We ought to be speaking up loudly and proudly and frequently about all of these wonderful people in the industry.

The point has been made already, in a whole range of different circumstances, that we are going through the worst drought that we have seen for decades and decades. It should not be lost on anybody that dairy farmers do not get to just go slow on the feed or trim the rate of production. They have cows needing to be milked twice a day, every day, and they have cows needing to be fed every day, and that means that when feed and water are in scarce supply then the stress builds enormously on them.

We need to do all we can to support them in the hard times, to celebrate the great work of those who are bringing world-leading products to the market, and to continue to recognise on World Milk Day—as well as all other times through the year—those wonderful South Australian dairy farmers and all who work in the industry. I commend the motion.

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (12:46): I would like to thank the member for Finniss for his private member's motion in acknowledgement of World Milk Day. I know that we are running out of time; I will be very quick. One of the things that I want to touch base on and I was thinking about is we have a dairy industry and milk production system in South Australia/Australia that is not meeting our needs today. In other words, we are importing more product than ever. It is even suggested that sometimes during the year we are getting our milk imported from New Zealand because we are not meeting demand.

Why is this happening? I did not just say this yesterday, either; I have said it over the last five to 10 years. Why is it diminishing? Why are dairy farmers falling off the perch? Why are they not continuing? How is it not expanding on these couple of cases? One reason is we know that we saw a massive problem with world trust in baby formula in China, where they started playing with this formula and perhaps even killing their own children because they got it wrong. They then made our product in Australia more valuable by filling their suitcases with it and importing it on aeroplanes, taking it back to China because they did not trust their own product. Why did that happen? Because we do have such world-class production of food, including this dairy sector and industry.

One of the things I want the South Australian and federal governments to understand is not only are dairy farmers the owners of these dairies—the cows and the infrastructure, with all the associated costs that I have heard all the speakers talk about like dry periods, $1,000 per tonne for hay, the cost of water and the technology—but they cannot actually find employees out there to milk these cows.

We do not have a workforce in Australia that wants to wake up at 3 or 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning and milk cows in the morning and at night. In fact, we have an employment situation where it is really hard to employ someone for those three or four hours each end of the day and say, 'You can have a sleep in the middle of the day and do nothing, then come back and start again.' It does not even allow them to do this.

One of the things I want the South Australian and Australian governments to recognise is this is not the only sector that is really struggling in battles to get employees out there and doing the work. We see it in aged care: if you go to the aged-care facilities it is almost like you have to try to spot the Australian. We know that all these imported workers and people are coming in and doing that work because Australians do not want to. The dairy sector is facing the same sorts of struggles.

We know that Australians do not want to work in the meat sector and the processing sector where we have abattoirs. We have a billion-dollar processing works around dairy—e.g., the cows, calves and the like, as they are surplus to the requirements of milk when they reach their end-of-use-by date—but we do not have a workforce that actually wants to process this type of food or collect the milk like I am suggesting.

What do we do? We could watch what supermarkets Woolworths and Coles did and go and make milk at $1 and think that the farmer should be paid only paid 30¢ or 40¢ a litre. That was not many years ago. It made it really hard for those dairy farmers to survive that sort of downturn. In fact, it even created an exit strategy of saying, 'Well, if you're going to sell milk in the supermarkets for a dollar, I am out of here, because I can't make that work for me.'

Another option that I have not mentioned yet, but I know it exists in the Middle East, is where the local workforce does not want to work. They are very, very wealthy countries over there. The locals get the jobs, but they have to import other workers to do the work for them. The locals themselves, I think from when I heard about this process, are on nearly $20 an hour—probably $30 or $40 now because it is 10 years ago—and the local workers were only on $5 an hour. The imported workforce came from Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan. People from other places around the world where they cannot find work were coming to these Middle Eastern countries. There was a quota system. This quota system says, 'Right, if you employ one local at $20 to $50 an hour, you are allowed to employ some overseas workers to come in and do the work that these locals do not want to do.'

Maybe Australia and South Australia need to look at this type of example, because we are going to watch our own milk industry, which is really valuable and important, just diminish because we will not consider the fact that Australians do not want to get out of bed and work and work a job at two ends of the day, and say it is all too hard and we should just go and import our milk from somewhere overseas like New Zealand.

I will finish by thanking the member for Finniss and everyone else who has spoken to support this valuable industry. It does exist in MacKillop. It is a valuable sector. It has continued to decline. It probably will decline further if we do not address this workforce issue and all the costs associated with producing milk, but it is not the only sector that is going to face these troubles.

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (12:51): I would like very much to thank all those who have spoken: the members for MacKillop, Heysen, Unley, Hammond, Waite and Frome. In particular, I would like to thank the Treasurer and the Speaker for their comments and their thanks for my time in leadership roles in the dairy industry.

I just want to also get on the record the names of people who have led the South Australian Dairyfarmers' Association in my adult lifetime: going back into the seventies and eighties, Aub Kretschmer was president, followed by Alan Manning, Ray Heinrich, Frank Beauchamp, Phil Kernick, Jeff Wright. Nick Brokenshire, who is Robert Brokenshire's son, was there briefly, then John Hunt, and now we have Robert Brokenshire.

I will mention the CEO roles. There have been an amazing number of very long-term CEOs who have been there, back decades and decades when there were only five on the list. I think we go back to the 1950s: David Higbed, a very long term CEO, then Adrian Scott and Chris Luz-Raymond. I personally spent most of my time working with Ken Lyons, a wonderful CEO to work with, and then more recently Andrew Curtis. They are wonderful leaders in the dairy industry and in what they have done for this state and the dairy industry in this state, so I would like to thank them directly. But I also very much would like to thank all those who are engaged in the dairy industry, whether owners, workers, operators of processing facilities of milk, right through to cheese and other manufactured goods. It is such an important industry and such an important part of our state.

Motion carried.