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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-10-15 Daily Xml
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Phylloxera

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. Can the minister advise the house about the new phylloxera five-year plan?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport, Minister for Racing) (14:51): I thank the member for Taylor for the question and acknowledge the work that she does with local agricultural producers in her area. Of course, the wine industry is enormously important to so many of us in this place. With 18 wine regions throughout the state, it is worth $1.87 billion to the South Australian economy.

Phylloxera is one of those things that we are thankfully free of here in South Australia, along with fruit fly and GM crops, but we need to pay tribute, I think, to those who have gone before us. The first bill or act of parliament was in 1874 in this place to actually set up safeguards to stop the importation of plant material related to vines. We need to thank those legislators, those vignerons and others who were involved in the wine industry back in the 1870s for their foresight. To think that they were doing it without modern communication; stories were coming out of the UK—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: The father of the Barossa's here.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: It is wonderful to see the former member for Schubert, a proud protector of the Barossa Valley and promoter of the Barossa Valley. This work has been going on for many years. In fact, the Phylloxera and Grape Industry Board of South Australia came into existence 110 years ago. They have remained vigilant as they have worked with industry, mainly here in South Australia, to keep South Australia free of phylloxera. Tonight, I will be launching their next five-year plan—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: —and that is the fruit fly, phylloxera, Fleurieu—we can get them all in there, Tom, if you like. Just say them quickly; they come out okay. This new plan actually sees their scope go even wider than just South Australia, to work with—

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: The member for Chaffey has asked: why did we axe the phylloxera selection board? We had a board to select the board of the phylloxera board, so we kind of thought it was—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: Catch-22—it has been there a fair while—it was a bit catch-22, a bit Yes Minister. I know it is a bit controversial. We did it because the phylloxera board asked us to get rid of it. We listened to them. They have been around for 110 years; they kind of know what is going on and we trust them. Part of this new five-year plan is actually to go out on the national level to work with other states, which of course pose a threat to us here in South Australia, particularly the member for MacKillop with Coonawarra there, with the Victorian border right along your area—some great grape growing areas.

Mr Williams: Pre-eminent.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: Pre-eminent—it's even higher than pre-eminent: it's fantastic. I will be down in Coonawarra this weekend for the cab sav celebrations and talking with the—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: I will behave myself. It really is important that we work with people interstate to help them reduce the threat of phylloxeracoming into this state. The best way we can do that is to help them eradicate phylloxera in their own area.

For those who don't know what phylloxera is, it's a little aphid-type bug that gets in under the soil and eats away at the roots of the vines. In the 1800s, they wiped out pretty much all the vines in Europe, and that's why here in South Australia we can proudly boast having some of the oldest vines in the world still on their own root stock. It is really important that the phylloxera board continues to do great work. We are supporting them as a government, and it is terrific to see them branching out and doing the work interstate as well.

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