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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-02-11 Daily Xml
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Farm Machinery

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (15:31): I would like to follow the member for Taylor on the theme of farmers and speak today about the transport of agricultural machinery on our public roads throughout South Australia.

The current code of practice that regulates the transport of farm machinery was put in place in 2008, some seven years ago, and my opinion is that the time has come for these regulations to be reviewed. I know that the member for Goyder at least, amongst other country members, has had numerous contacts on this particular issue—there are many similarities between his electorate and mine—and other country members will have had contact as well. Very simply, technology has taken the size, weight, width and height of agricultural machinery well past what the current code regulates for.

Late last year, I was able to meet with representatives from the Department of Transport. I would like to mention the particularly good work of Primary Industries and Regions SA (PIRSA), but also the Agricultural Bureau of South Australia. Andrew Kitto came down from the Mid North to make some representations, and also Karen Baines, on behalf of the Ag Bureau, was over from Ungarra on the Eyre Peninsula, so they had made quite an effort to get to Adelaide. Karen and Andrew, I am sure, have done a lot of work in relation to this in the past. Also present at that meeting was Mr Rob Kerin, well known to members in this place, who currently heads Primary Producers SA.

What we wanted to do was present to the department the constraints that we feel are imposed on farmers now. It is a fact of life that many farmers have blocks here, there and everywhere throughout a particular district, and transporting large farm machinery is part of day-to-day life, particularly during the busy times of seeding and harvest. In fact, I took a couple of calls late last year from constituents who were particularly agitated because they had been at the wrong end of a police officer's wrath because they had breached the regulations, unintentionally and having had no idea that they were breaking the rule.

I will just relate a couple of stories. One of them had picked up a brand new auger from the manufacturing business in my home town of Cummins. He was trundling off down the road with it on his ute and was pulled over. The auger was measured. Of course, an auger transfers grain from one bin generally into a truck but sometimes into another bin. They are transportable, they are on wheels, have one axle generally—

Mr Griffiths: And they are long.

Mr TRELOAR: And this auger was too long.

Mr Griffiths: And a lot of them have brakes fitted too.

Mr TRELOAR: I am not sure whether this auger had brakes fitted or not, but that is another issue, member for Goyder. So, he was taking this brand new auger home for the first time and was booked for being over length. More of an issue, I think, is that of field bins. Field bins are transportable, generally galvanised iron bins which are used for the storage of grain. Farmers will move these from field to field and they will also move them from farm to farm. Generally, there is an HR Holden rim on each side.

Mr Griffiths: Four or five metres wide.

Mr TRELOAR: Yes, and a constituent of mine was booked for towing a field bin that was—surprise, surprise—over width and over height and I think probably overweight, unbeknownst to him. The regulations have been in place since 2008. Farmers are more and more becoming aware, but that is not the issue. The issue is that the regulations are not appropriate any longer for where farmers are finding themselves.

Contentiously, those bigger field bins are of a weight where, according to the law, they are supposed to have brakes fitted. This would quite simply be impractical and incredibly expensive. There are literally tens of thousands of these bins across the state, none of which are fitted with brakes, so the cost to farmers, should this come to pass, would be extraordinary.

As I have said in this place before—and I will say it again and I will keep saying it—it is very important for our farmers who compete on a world market to be able to stay efficient and competitive. Any regulations that impact on that efficiency and competitiveness are detrimental to us as producers. I think we talk a lot about how much the export industries are worth to this state and, believe me, the grain industry in this state is amongst the most important of those.

I urge the government through their department—and the department has heard our presentation and I would have to say they were receptive to some of our suggestions and not so receptive to others—to give this due consideration, because in my opinion it is time for this code of practice to be updated, to be brought into the 21st century to keep pace with the latest technology. Just finally, I will commend Primary Producers South Australia and the Ag Bureau of South Australia for the work they have done on this and we look forward to hearing feedback from the department.

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