AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (15:41): Like most people, I still remember my first car: a Belmont station wagon, all vinyl seats and cack brown in colour. At a time when Australian-built cars ruled the roads, Volkswagens, Renaults and Peugeots were all made or assembled here, as well as Chryslers and Mitsubishis. Australian assembly lines once produced the Standard, Triumph, Rambler, Hillman, Humber, Austin, Morris and Singer cars. Who could have predicted in the 1960s that just three car manufacturers would remain today? And who would have guessed that the roar of the once-mighty GMH lion would now be just a whimper?

South Australia was also the whitegoods capital of the nation, with manufacturers like Lightburn and Simpson. We made television sets in Australia: Pye, Rank Arena, AWA, Thorn and Philips. The state had a profitable shipbuilding industry well before we sank money into submarines. There is no need to guess where the HMAS Whyalla was built.

So what went wrong? Manufacturing's share of GDP has been falling since the 1960s when it made up a quarter of our economy. By 2005 it was less than half of that. We may never again have a manufacturing-based economy. It is time for a new focus. It is time we concentrated on industries in which we already have a natural advantage.

Australia grows enough food to feed 60 million people. We have a population of 23 million so we export the rest. Those exports help feed the world and the world has an insatiable appetite. We need to grow that industry. It will not be easy. Australian farmers are already very productive. South Australia is a national leader in irrigation efficiency and our landcare practices are among the best in the country and possibly amongst the best in the world. But we need to do better.

What can we do to increase the net value of our primary production? It revolves around the well-funded research into all aspects of agriculture. If you have eaten South Australian pistachios—and you should—you have probably already eaten a variety called Sirora which was developed for Australian conditions by the CSIRO.

Wheat and barley are two of Australia's most important cereal crops. Scientists from the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics at Adelaide University's Waite Campus are improving wheat and barley's tolerance to environmental stresses such as drought, heat, salinity and nutrient toxicities. These stresses lower yields and quality throughout the world and can cause significant problems for cereal growers.

I want more of that sort of research centred in South Australia. South Australia must lead the world in dryland agricultural research. Look at the great work being done at the Minnipa Agricultural Centre on Eyre Peninsula. Eyre Peninsula produces 40 per cent of South Australia's wheat. Research produced there is now crucial to South Australia's excellence in dryland broadacre farming, but now its funding is under threat and it may not get the proceeds of the sale of other research facilities which, of course, this Labor government is selling off.

Australia's chief scientist reports the most significant contribution we can make towards feeding the world is not how much we grow: it is developing the agricultural science. The key to improved productivity in the land is to unlock the science lab, but what Canberra is doing is just the opposite. Our opponents have plundered the agricultural portfolio by dropping the annual budget from $3.8 billion in 2007 to just $1.7 billion today. Labor has abolished Land and Water Australia and cut $63 million in CSIRO agricultural research. A further $33 million was cut from the cooperative research centres; fewer agricultural CRCs get enough money. Right here, Labor politicians voted to cut the state's premier research organisation, the South Australian Research and Development Institute, known as SARDI. So cut they did, the unkindest cut of all—from $38.2 million in the 2007-08 budget, members opposite slashed SARDI to less than $31 million this year.

Labor did the opposite to what we needed, not because they are silly (although they are) or because they are incompetent (which, of course, they are) or mendacious (which is their default position); it is because they just do not care. It does not have to be this way. With real research effort we can lead rather than follow in the development of better varieties suited to our climate and soils. The future of primary industries in South Australia may become as dependent on what we know as on what we grow. It requires effort and commitment, but it can be done.