GRAIN INDUSTRY

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (15:04): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries a question about the grain industry.

Leave granted.

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: Driving through South Australia at this time of the year one becomes aware that harvest is getting underway for our cereal crops. The minister has spoken previously in this place on the grains industry and arrangements made to support it. Can the minister please update the chamber on the grains management plan?

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) (15:05): I thank the honourable member for her most important question. She indeed demonstrates a great deal of interest in these very important policy areas. The member is correct that it is coming to the business end of the season. It is a very busy time for our grain growers as the harvest began in October in the Port Pirie area followed soon after in the west near Wudinna.

Members may know that the pattern of grain harvest is that it begins in those early ripening districts in the north and west and then spreads south-east across to and over cereal zones through Eyre Peninsula, the northern Murray Mallee and the agricultural districts of the Mid North and Yorke Peninsula before finishing, usually during January, in the South-East. I am advised that the timing of the start to this year's harvest is about average and reflects the season we are having, unlike past years with the hotter and drier September, which has seen harvest start two to three weeks earlier in late September.

Members may also recall the following period of disunity in the grain industry. I have spoken about it before in this place in consultation with the South Australia Farmers Federation (SAFF) and Grain Producers SA (GPSA). I announced that I would establish a new primary industries fund (PIF) under the Primary Industries Funding Schemes Act for grains to replace the levy under the Wheat Marketing Act and that the new PIF would operate from 1 March this year. The 5¢ per tonne contribution to the grains fund is collected by the purchaser of the grain as a deduction from the payment due to the grower.

To ensure that this voluntary levy is used for the benefit of grain growers a management plan has been developed. The plan was drafted by an independent consultant, independent of both government and key grain industry stakeholders. It followed a very extensive consultation process with relevant and extensive stakeholder organisations and there was a series of public meetings. The consultant also garnered information from grain growers using an online survey which was posted on the PIRSA website. All of this information was used in putting this plan together. This plan is an industry plan; it belongs to the grain industry. Following this wide ranging canvassing of views, a plan for the grains fund has been provided by me for the industry to approve.

I am pleased to advise the chamber that I released that five-year plan at a public meeting on Monday. The plan covers things like the types of activities which may be funded, how organisations may access the fund, how applications for projects will be assessed, management contingencies (including the grain grower refunds), reporting requirements for projects funded under the scheme, and the level and format of consultation the grain growers consider appropriate for required annual revisions of the management plan. So, even though it is a five-year management plan it will be reviewed every 12 months through a process of consultation to ensure that we reflect any changing developments and priorities that occur in the industry.

A wide range of activities has been identified by the industry for potential funding. They include but are not limited to things like advocacy, policy setting, decision-making for the grain industry, fees for affiliation of the applicant organisation, grain industry promotional activities (including things like industry field days, conferences and other relevant events, and associated support and development costs can be included), and projects aimed at achieving improvements across the grain industry such as improving port access, improving access to markets and access to value adding opportunities in the value chain.

Another area is reasonable operating and management expenses, representing the grain growers at regional, state and national grain or agricultural industry forums and suchlike, and research to assist the applicant organisations' understanding of issues affecting industry development that is not the domain of the research funding organisations, for example, SA Grains Industry Trust or Grains Research and Development Corporation.

Applications for payments from the fund will be called for in March each year when the size of the fund will be able to be estimated, and for those organisations interested in the fund the management plan can be found at the PIRSA website, so people can access that readily. I can absolutely assure people that those funds will only be spent on those things that have been identified by the industry as being in the interests of the SA grains industry.

I think this is a real opportunity for a new page, a fresh start, for us to move forward. The grain industry is very important to the economy of South Australia, and it is important that it has a strong representative body and a strong industry fund for it to continue developments to enable it to remain viable and prosperous.