High School Aquaculture Programs

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:06): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Will the minister inform the chamber about the important announcement the government has made regarding high school aquaculture programs?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (15:06): I thank the honourable member for his question. It was a pleasure for me to be able to visit Port Lincoln High School recently during one of my visits to the region to announce that the Malinauskas Labor government will be waiving the licence fees for the six schools around the state that hold an aquaculture licence.

The six schools—Ceduna, Lucindale, Cowell, Kingston, Kangaroo Island and Port Lincoln—will have their fees waived for 2022-23. The schools all hold land-based licences. There are several reasons why this is a fantastic announcement for our schools and for our aquaculture industry. The attraction, education and retention of skilled workers has been identified as a major barrier and one of the key areas of support needed to ensure a growing aquaculture industry.

Having the opportunity to educate students in aquaculture and potential employment pathways available to them while they are contemplating their careers is crucial for the longevity of the industry. The skills, and just as importantly, the passion for this kind of work that students can obtain in these settings is invaluable. Places like Port Lincoln that are built on the seafood industry will need future generations to be just as passionate as generations past.

The aquaculture program at Port Lincoln High School has been run by Mr Chris McGowan since its inception in 2001 and I was fortunate to have Mr McGowan show me around the facility on the day. I was really impressed by his absolute passion for teaching on the subject. He really has quite an infectious enthusiasm and a huge wealth of knowledge developed over many years that is clearly of great benefit to the students.

It is hard not to be impressed also by the fantastic setup that the school has that was undeniably the hard work of Mr McGowan and his team and has been achieved over a 20-year period. There are eight large grow-out tanks, a processing room and a classroom setup. Those eight tanks housed barramundi that the students have been growing since they were fingerlings at the start of the year and are now starting to grow to a good size.

I can attest personally that they love their dinnertime after having had the opportunity to feed them and they certainly get very excited—the barramundi that is, not necessarily the students, but maybe so. Barramundi are the species of choice in this program due to their growth being well aligned to running the program throughout the school year.

As mentioned, the students grow the barramundi from fingerlings at the start of the school year and follow the process right through the end of the year, where they package and sell their product. Throughout that process, students are learning about water quality, feeding, breeding and so much more, along with work placements and industry exposure.

The programs are run by small and dedicated teams with limited resources and that is why this licence fee waiver is important. It means that the money that would have been spent on licence fees paid to the government can now be spent on an upgrade of equipment or used to replace an item or for any reason that the schools see fit in benefiting their aquaculture programs that the students enjoy taking part in so much.

I very much look forward to visiting some of the other schools that this measure will assist. I know that, if they are anything like Port Lincoln, they are doing a great job in getting young people interested in skills in what is such an important part of the state's economy.