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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-11-12 Daily Xml
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Horticulture Round Table

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (15:25): I would like to speak about something that happened in one of the rooms in Old Parliament House today. I had the opportunity to bring together people from horticulture, the chicken industry and pork producers with government departments, ministers and horticultural representatives at a horticulture round table aimed at cutting industry red tape.

The horticulture round table aims to cut red tape that we estimate is holding back about $50 million worth of potential investments in the Northern Adelaide Plains and the greater South Australia area. I was pleased to hold this round table in collaboration with the Hortex Alliance, a horticultural industry group based in Virginia within my electorate of Taylor.

I am very grateful to the chair of that alliance, Dino Musolino, and their executive officer, Bryan Robertson, who were both at the table today speaking with minister Bignell, who attended, as well as representatives from minister Rau's office and minister Piccolo's office and representatives from the CFS, the MFS, DSD and PIRSA. It was wonderful to have all these people in the same room so that we could work closely together with the South Australian government to further economic development throughout the state, particularly considering that the horticultural industry of South Australia contributes more than $1 billion to the state's economy.

The industry was very interested to talk about issues such as fire regulation and modernising our building code. We are looking to build new glasshouses, grow new jobs and increase our export capacities to South-East Asia. As I said, I was greatly appreciative of minister Bignell's attendance at the round table today for more than an hour, and minister Piccolo, and their support over the previous weeks in trying to resolve some of the emergency services perspectives about building regulations.

The chairman of Primary Producers South Australia and member of the Economic Development Board, Mr Rob Kerin, was also there and he was very optimistic about the outcomes from the meeting. Rob has gone on the record as saying, 'Primary industries are major contributors to our local economy, this round table was about helping primary producers avoid these extra business costs caused by red and green tape. It is great to see industry and government working together to further a key state economic priority.'

Mr Musolino, a lettuce grower and salad mix grower in my electorate, believes that the round table helped resolve some long-standing issues. He said it was very important to see people actively listening at the meeting and making useful contributions and that they will work together on these solutions going forward.

Some of the key outcomes of today's round table included minister Piccolo allowing the establishment of a peer review panel to assist primary producers to navigate the process of obtaining fire regulation approval and DPTI forming a reference group that will talk to industry, planning experts and emergency services to modernise planning laws, particularly around glasshouse codes 8 and 10a.

I cannot say how highly I appreciate the efforts of everyone who helped us convene this round table, which we have been working on since early March this year. I would particularly like to acknowledge the contribution of Julie Woodman from my electorate office and Juan Legaspi, my parliamentary adviser. Their work has been invaluable, as has the work of all the other ministerial officers. This is just the beginning of the work we are going to do together with the Hortex Alliance, and I look forward to updating the house on it further at a future date.

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