Legislative Council Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3) 51 3 Parliament of South Australia Legislative Council published Matters of Interest Fine Food Exhibition FINE FOOD EXHIBITION The Hon. C.V. SCHAEFER Legislative Council The Hon. C.V. SCHAEFER (15:38): Last night, I attended the launch of the Fine Food Exhibition, which is to be held in October next year in Adelaide. Adelaide is the last major city in Australia to have the exhibition. It began in Sydney and then went to Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. An honourable member Legislative Council An honourable member: Next to last. The Hon. C.V. SCHAEFER Legislative Council The Hon. C.V. SCHAEFER: Yes, next to last—without perhaps Darwin. It was a lovely evening for me because I caught up with a number of people from the industry whom I have known for some time. In September, I also went to the launch of the report of a former thinker in residence, Professor Fearne, entitled 'Sustainable food and wine value chains'. I commend the government for bringing Professor Fearne out from England to make some observations on our industry in South Australia. Amongst other things, he said: There is no reason why South Australia could or should not position itself as the innovator in Australian food and wine...However, to develop a sustainable competitive advantage, South Australian food and wine businesses must devote more resources to penetrating high value markets and avoid the 'race to the bottom', competing purely on price, which they are ill-equipped to win. Another quote states: It's clear that we have some huge opportunities and challenges in the next century and already we can see the processing/value-adding part of certain sectors making a growing impact on our industry and its import profile...The...team is now putting the plan into action—using the partnership between government and industry. That quote was from the Food for the Future team in 1999. I then have a quote from the minister, Hon. Paul Caica, who launched Professor Fearne's report with the following press release, stating: The food and wine industries together contribute $14 billion to the State's revenue and employ almost 20 per cent of the State's workforce...'businesses need to work together to meet those demands,' Professor Fearne said...'enormous potential...exists, and the key steps needed to position South Australia as the leading innovator in Australian food and wine [are collaboration]', he said. Interestingly, I have another quote, from the then premier John Olsen, who in 2001 said that one in every five jobs in our state was accounted for by the food industry—and, in fact, we now have 20 per cent, which adds up to the same—and that in 2000-01 the food industry alone accounted for $8.3 billion. It does not take a great economist to work out that we have not made any advance since then. The Hon. John Olsen went on to say: ...Industry is on track to achieve its goal of growing to $15 billion by 2010, as set out in the Food for the Future plan launched in 1997...However, the pace of change in the global Food Industry continues...There are many opportunities for individuals to pursue, but real success will come through collaboration. So, in fact, in 7½ years there has been so little progress in the food industry in South Australia that essentially the same reports have been quoted in all that time. I commend Professor Fearne, but it saddens me deeply to think that this government has been so narrow minded, so lacking in innovation and so silo oriented that it was unable to grasp the foundations that were laid to a very successful program since 1997 and in fact launched in 1998, so 11 years later we are revisiting where we were when the program was launched. Time expired.