VITICULTURE AND OENOLOGY SCIENCE AND INNOVATION AWARD

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (14:46): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS: I will start again, if you like.

The PRESIDENT: Hear, hear!

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: It 's supposed to be an opposition question, anyway.

The PRESIDENT: They have had eight. The Hon. Mr Kandelaars.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: You have had 30 minutes. There are other people here, apart from the Liberal Party.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Family First might want a turn today, the Greens might want a turn, and the Hon. Kelly Vincent might want a turn. This show is not all about the opposition over here. The Hon. Mr Kandelaars.

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS: Thank you, Mr President. I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries a question about wine.

Leave granted.

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS: Wine is South Australia's third largest single export commodity, making up 9.7 per cent of all South Australian overseas commodity exports. Will the minister inform the chamber of recent awards for the innovation in wine research?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women) (14:47): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. I am very pleased to be able to announce to the chamber this year's 2012 Viticulture and Oenology Science and Innovation Award for Young People in Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

South Australia dominates the Australian wine industry, with just under half of all Australian vineyards situated in this great state. The $22,000 award is part of an investment into research, development and innovation in the Australian wine sector, and it is sponsored by three key stakeholders: the Wine Grape Growers Association, the Winemakers' Federation of Australia and the Australian government.

This year's award of $22,000, which was presented in Canberra last week to Dr Matthew Gilliham, was sponsored by the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation. Dr Gilliham is a senior research scientist at the University of Adelaide's Waite Research Institute, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology.

The Waite Research Institute fosters the Waite campus as a globally preeminent research environment in agriculture, wine and food, and it invests in research initiatives, people and state-of-the-art infrastructure. It addresses key issues such as global food security and agricultural sustainability. Researchers at the Waite Research Institute are taking a holistic approach to agriculture, investigating soils to crops, value-adding to market chains, and human health.

The award will allow Dr Gilliham to draft the first sequence of a rootstock genome by comparing the 140 Ruggeri rootstock's genetic sequence, with the genome of the common grapevine, Vitis vinifera. Rootstocks are an important asset to Australian viticulture and 140 Ruggeri is one of the most commonly planted in Australia. Rootstock is a plant, or stump, which already has an established, healthy root system. It can be used for grafting a cutting or budding from another plant. The tree part being grafted onto the rootstock is usually called the scion.

The scion is the plant which has the properties desired by the propagator, and the rootstock is the working part which interacts with the soil to nourish the new plant. After a few years, the tissues of the two parts will have grown together, producing a single tree, although genetically it always remains two different plants. Grafted vines have been widely used in Australia for decades. Scions are drawn from the species Vitis vinifera and rootstocks are drawn from American species of the Vitis genus.

Over the next 12 months, Dr Gilliham will compare the 140 Ruggeri rootstock's genetic sequence with the genome of the common grapevine, Vitis vinifera. This research will help identify genetic markers for traits such as drought, salinity, root pathogen and acid soil tolerance that could improve Australia's rootstock breeding programs. It is hoped that sequencing will provide the important first steps in linking useful traits to genes, an approach that will accelerate breeding for key rootstock attributes and help support a competitive Australian wine sector. This is a major step forward in the science behind Australia's wine industry. I would like to personally congratulate Matthew on winning this award and I look forward to his continuing contribution to excellence in the Australian wine sector.

The PRESIDENT: I am sure every member of the council would join in congratulating South Australian winemaker Peter Gago on achieving world's best winemaker.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!