Question Time

Frost Damage

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (14:25): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question to the Minister for Primary Industries about frost.

Leave granted.

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI: After farmers with various crops around the state are dealing with the impact of crop loss from the worst frost events in living memory, the minister told the ABC that frost was an unfortunate business risk of growing grapes and instead redirected growers to insurance providers. The minister stated:

A lot of growers and businesses will have their own arrangements in terms of business insurance or whatever, so we're certainly not announcing monetary amounts for frost-affected growers...

My office has received comments from growers across different regions of the state uniformly of the view that frost insurance is not something that growers can afford as the premiums are extremely expensive, it does not provide full protection to growers and that suggesting so demonstrates a lack of knowledge. Similarly, there have been many comments about the substandard level of assistance available to date, with one grower saying, 'It is equally tiring about the $1,500 amount supposedly available to eligible red grapegrowers, implying every red grapegrower gets it; that is not the case.' My questions to the minister are:

1. Is the minister aware that business insurance does not necessarily cover frost events?

2. Who advised the minister that growers would have frost insurance to fall back on?

3. Given the magnitude and widespread nature of the damage, will the minister reconsider her current position of not offering new assistance measures that match the magnitude of the impact on growers and farmers?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:27): I thank the honourable member for her question. I think it is clear to everyone that frost has had a significant impact across a great deal of the state. There were two severe frost events in September and the interactions that we have had, both on a departmental level as well as me personally, with growers have said that it has been quite different even within the same areas. That is one of the reasons that we have been able to assist by providing the service of utilising satellite imagery analysis to map the extent of the frost damage. That is really important in terms of being able to quantify the frost impact in the wine industry.

In terms of the specific questions, I am quite confident that I have never suggested that every grapegrower is going to be accessing the $1,500 assistance, but when I am speaking in media obviously I talk about the range of supports that are available within different sectors, partly to ensure that people are aware of the assistance that they may be eligible for, and encourage them to reach out usually through the FaB mentors, the family and business support mentors, in order to find out the sorts of things that they may be eligible for. In terms of insurance, that was simply made as part of some general comments regarding businesses having their own arrangements.

The PRESIDENT: Supplementary question arising from the answer, the honourable Leader of the Opposition.