Drought Assistance

The Hon. B.R. HOOD (14:52): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Primary Industries on the topic of drought.

Leave granted.

The Hon. B.R. HOOD: A recent email sent out by the minister's department said:

The Drought Support Package has a high level of interest. Please note that the current processing time for On-Farm Drought Infrastructure Rebate Scheme is an estimate of 10 weeks.

Many farmers who have been waiting to hear back from the department since putting in their application mid-December 2024 have now received an email suggesting that the process is going to take another 10 weeks. My questions to the minister are:

1. Given the minister advised the chamber today that she has doubled the amount of staff, what was the FTE in the grants process team in PIRSA as of December 2024 to process applications?

2. How many FTEs do you currently have in your grants processing team?

3. How many applications did the department receive for the On-Farm Drought Infrastructure Rebate Scheme?

4. How many grants have been approved?

5. How many have been notified that they are not successful?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:53): I thank the honourable member for his question. First of all, my advice is that there are no outstanding applications from December 2024, as the honourable member has claimed, except for those applications that have not provided the additional information that is required, so in effect the application has not been fully complete. My advice is that the staff who have been dealing with the grant applications has doubled from nine to 18.