Grain Industry

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (14:37): Supplementary: I am just wondering if the minister can confirm: will you be consulting far and wide on this proposal?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:37): Given we are right in the middle of harvest, it's a great time to talk about harvest, and of course it will be a good opportunity to gauge the temperature of those. But I make the point we do want to keep South Australia's community safe.

It is interesting: at the time of the Pinery fire, people were blaming it on climate change. It had nothing to do with climate change. It is modern farming practices where now we have much bigger paddocks. When I was first farming the paddocks were 50 acres; now they are 500 acres. Farmers grow the crop right to the edge of the fence. They grow very good crops. Fire management is much more challenging today, with large paddocks and big areas under crop.

In years gone by, with 50-acre paddocks, you'd have a paddock cut for hay, one that a mob of sheep were grazing on, something you'd ploughed up somewhere, a paddock of wheat over there, some peas here, beans in the back paddock, barley somewhere else. Now we see these big acreages where you have wall-to-wall stubbles and big areas. So it is important. We saw the loss of property and life with the Pinery fire. Members—this lot—when they were sitting over here said, 'Oh, it was bad, because it was climate change.' What rubbish! They were really good crops, and it was a bad day.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: It was really good crops.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: You used to claim it when it rained. We actually have to make sure that the rules and regulations are continuing to evolve and to make sure that the community is safe, but we will talk to the community.