Export Recovery Taskforce

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:13): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Trade and Investment regarding relationships with other agencies.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: During recent discussions with the Chief Executive of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Mr McDowell said he was not aware of the existence of the Export Recovery Taskforce that has been formed to respond to COVID-19. My questions to the minister are:

1. Why is the head of the Premier's department not aware of your Export Recovery Taskforce?

2. Has the Export Recovery Taskforce been asked to develop any recommendations?

3. If so, will they be considered by the Premier and his department?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade and Investment) (15:14): I thank the honourable member for his question and his interest in the Export Recovery Taskforce. The task force was an initiative of mine and the department's to just quickly, when the 48 weekly international flights coming to Adelaide ceased, sit down and talk with our exporters to look at the problems they were facing and to see if we could look at some pathways to help them.

Clearly, members in this chamber are well aware of the issues faced by the rock lobster industry when the markets collapsed in China especially, and in Asia, around Chinese New Year because of COVID-19. Once all the airlines and the flights ceased there was some considerable concern for a number of our exporters of fresh produce.

The export task force was really a response to the crisis, as an operational matter for me as minister and my department. It is not something we had to seek permission from the Chief Executive of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet to establish. It is a voluntary task force of stakeholders who have some concerns, freight forwarders, logistics experts and also producers, and the majority were people involved with the aquaculture and fresh food sector.

Of course, then within about a fortnight of it being established and starting to get a handle on what the volume was—was there some going interstate to Melbourne by road to get access to international flights—we saw the international freight assistance mechanism established by the federal government, by the very good and hardworking federal Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, the Hon. Simon Birmingham. They established this $110 million fund to support exporters right across the nation who had lost access to markets because the daily passenger flights were no longer flying.

It wasn't a matter of providing the Premier or the Department of the Premier and Cabinet with advice and recommendations. We have the federal government with a program on the table. Mr Michael Byrne is the International Freight Coordinator. He came and joined. The task force meets about once a fortnight or thereabouts via a video or telephone hook-up in, I would say, a relatively informal way. We invited Michael Byrne to come and address the group, to explain what the process would be and how we might assist our exporters.

It is fair to say the federal government's initial focus was Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth and that Adelaide and Hobart, or South Australia and Tasmania, would have to put proposals up on a case-by-case basis. The task force then was actually able to be really useful because we already had in place some data and some indication of producers who couldn't get to markets. Some were going to Melbourne. Since then, as I mentioned earlier today, the second flight to Singapore left this morning. That is two flights we have had now, two of at least six that Singapore has committed to.

It wasn't a matter of providing recommendations. It was actually to have the industry ready to act when there was an opportunity. The federal government provided that opportunity and I can say that I was very delighted that the industry was able to step up and fill the plane very quickly.