Legislative Council Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1) 55 1 Parliament of South Australia Legislative Council published Question Time AgriFutures Rural Women's Award AgriFutures Rural Women's Award The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS Legislative Council AgriFutures Rural Women's Award The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (14:50): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Will the minister update the chamber about the recent announcement of the 2023 SA AgriFutures Rural Women's Award winner? The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN Legislative Council Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development Minister for Forest Industries AgriFutures Rural Women's Award The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:51): I thank the honourable member for her question. Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the 2023 SA AgriFutures Rural Women's Award announcement event at SkyCity here in Adelaide. It was truly a wonderful evening, celebrating five outstanding rural women. It was a great chance to catch up with some of the previous years' finalist alumni, who continue to show how valuable the AgriFutures program is as they go from strength to strength across a whole range of industries, projects and regions; none more so than the 2022 winner, Robyn Verrall, who not only had a great year as the reigning award winner and in continuing her work on her important project Kere to Country, she was also the emcee for this year's awards. Robyn, you did a fantastic job. I know this is often said with awards events, but there is absolutely no doubt that the five exceptional finalists this year would have made it extremely hard for the judges to pick just one winner. But the judges managed to do that, and it was my pleasure to announce that Ali Paulett from Clare was the winner of the SA AgriFutures Rural Women's Award for 2023. Ali will receive a $15,000 grant from Westpac to further progress her project, Bush DeVine, which is an Indigenous Australian native sensory bush food garden. The intent in creating Bush DeVine was not only to create a unique garden space with a sensory walking path but to also supply her winery restaurant with fresh native produce. This award will provide further opportunities for Ali to expand the reach of her garden, through collaboration with First Nations people, and to create interactive content and educative material that can teach anyone anywhere around the world about the importance of native and indigenous bush tucker and the garden that she has created. As I mentioned earlier, the other finalists—Kerri Cliff of Eyre Business at Kimba, Lyndsey Jackson of Platfarm at Moonta, Bridget Johns of Be Simply Free at Alford, and Emily Riggs of Iris and Wool at Burra—would also have made very worthy winners. I am certain they will continue to achieve great things, both personally and for their regional communities. Once again, I congratulate Ali Paulett on her win and really look forward to seeing her realise her ambitions for her fantastic project, the Bush DeVine garden, come to fruition. I know she will represent our state proudly at the national awards later this year.