Drought

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (14:22): Supplementary: how many of the future roundtable discussions will the minister be attending? Did she attend the round table in Naracoorte?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:22): I thank the honourable member for her supplementary question. I wasn't able to attend the one in Naracoorte. I would have liked to have done so, but unfortunately other commitments prevented that from occurring. I am advised that the second round table is actually being held today, so that obviously prevents me from attending, given I have to be here in parliament.

It's also important to understand the purpose of the round tables. Peak industry groups and local associations are able to meet with PIRSA to be able to go into whatever level of detail is appropriate for them about the way that the drought is affecting them. PIRSA is also able to share information, talk about particular programs that are already in existence and also able to then bring back ideas that might come from those round tables and feed them into the process in terms of whether there is additional support that might be appropriate and what assistance might be able to be recommended to me as the minister.

In addition to that, there is regular monitoring and reporting on seasonal conditions and impacts to primary production and regional communities, which occurs through the PIRSA working group intelligence report as well as the crop and pasture report. A drought advisory group, I think I mentioned in this place a few weeks ago, chaired by the chief executive of PIRSA, has been convened to formally engage with industry and government stakeholders to also identify industry and community impacts caused by drought conditions and other compounding issues.