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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
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Regional South Australia

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (12:21): I rise to move:

That this house—

(a) recognises the vital economic contribution and important role that regional and rural South Australia plays;

(b) acknowledges the state Liberal government’s focus and commitment to growing the regional South Australian economy; and

(c) notes that more than 50 per cent of South Australia’s merchandise exports originate from regional South Australia.

South Australia's economy has always relied on regional commodities from its earliest days. This very building actually sits on the site of South Australia's first wheat crop—and a good one at that in those times, at 36 bushels per acre.

Our first exports were regional commodities: wool and copper. Copper from Burra and Kapunda saved South Australia from economic failure in the 1840s. Regarding copper figures today, more than 260,000 tonnes were produced in 2017, worth more than $2 billion. Copper represents 17 per cent of South Australia's goods exported and 8,300 direct and indirect jobs. We also produce iron ore, mineral sands, gold, silver and uranium, and let's not forget that Coober Pedy is the opal capital of the world.

Regions are responsible for more than a quarter of the gross state product: $25 billion. The food sector alone employs one in five working South Australians. The state produces some of the best agricultural and food products in the world. Grain and pasture crops—wheat, barley, hay, pulses, canola—with a five-year average of around 8.3 million tonnes generate $0.6 billion in revenue for the state economy, and 85 per cent of this is exported. We see great livestock exports as well contributing $4.6 billion. About half the national wine production and 80 per cent of the premium wine production generates more than $2.3 billion and exports to more than 100 countries.

Horticulture is another important part of the regional economy, which generates over $3 billion in revenue for the state. Citrus is worth $90 million and has had huge increases in exports recently. Potatoes are worth well over $200 million, and South Australia is the leading potato state. Almond export is worth over $100 million and is growing. We produce 67,000 tonnes of seafood, which is worth more than $900 million. Finished food production generates more than $6 billion and more than 140,000 jobs. This is all contributed by what has come from our regions. Farms employ more than 30,000 people directly.

Focusing on an industry I know well, the dairy industry, there are 241 dairy farmers in South Australia, milking about 65,000 cows and producing 5.4 per cent of the national production, which delivers 487 million litres of milk. Much of that milk can also be exported, with $65 million in dairy exports. There is $181 million worth of income generated at farm gates, supporting our communities in the regions, and 1,300 jobs directly involved in this.

There has been a huge shift in this sector over the last 40 years. Farms were much smaller in size and their productivity was much lower. The average production per dairy farm has changed enormously, with cows back in the late 1970s producing just over 3,000 litres of milk per year. Today, it is more than double that, with more than 6,500 litres per year. Improving the productivity on their farms is an enormous change and an enormous credit to the dairy farmers of today.

A huge number of smaller farms were involved in the industry previously. Forty years ago, we had another 1,500 dairy farmers. That does not mean that we do not have roughly the same number of farmers still involved in business; it just means that many more of them are actually employees of larger businesses, rather than the one-man and one-woman enterprises that were operated back in the early 1970s.

We continue to see huge efforts made in trying to get better markets for our dairy product exports, as well as other agricultural products. One of the key things I was involved with in my latter years of being involved in the South Australian dairy industry with the South Australian Dairyfarmers' Association, was getting fresh milk out of South Australia into markets in China. At that point in time, no-one was exporting fresh milk from South Australia. There was one business in Queensland that had just got access to exporting fresh milk out of Queensland into China, but no-one from South Australia had even looked at it.

As an association, we decided that there was great potential there, so we looked into this space and were able to establish a supply chain and get the South Australian Dairyfarmers' Association's own brand of milk, SADA Fresh, into China, and it has been exported to China ever since. To me, that was very much about a small association proving to the rest of the industry that it is not that hard.

There were a few challenges, particularly in dealing with some of the laws in China around labelling and trying to make the labels appropriate for the Chinese market and what they required on them. Dealing with the bureaucracy was very challenging, right down to the registration of the SADA Fresh trademark. That was even held up and, amazingly, I still have the email I received back from the Chinese government apologising for the delay, but they had run out of paper to print the registration. I find it interesting that bureaucracies around the world have similar sorts of problems at times in trying to achieve outcomes.

It is a fantastic effort for an organisation like SADA to get that milk there, and others in this state have gone on to also find markets overseas for fresh milk. It is only a small sector, but it shows the potential that South Australian agriculture, in particular, has in getting into markets like China, other parts of Asia and the Middle East, and I am aware that SADA are working on getting the milk into the Middle East. There is potential all around the world to improve our exports by doing things differently from the way we have done them in the past.

The Marshall Liberal government focuses on growing regional economy, backing business so it can invest in our state with certainty, developing new and innovative products and services, increasing export potential to drive sales and opportunities and creating real and lasting jobs. The measures that we are looking at are the Regional Growth Fund, $150 million; economic advice and support; stamp duty relief on multi-peril crop insurance; supporting farmers; the review of marine parks; protecting the livestock industries; new trade offices; and opening up our reservoirs—all part of opening our regions to the world.

Over 50 per cent of our merchandise exports are from our regions. A great example of this is the local business of Mountain Fresh Fruit Juices. I had the pleasure of going there recently with the federal minister, Mathias Cormann. It was established more than 40 years ago at Mount Compass, and it has quietly sat and operated in the Mount Compass community, producing fantastic fresh fruit juice products. They are very much based around just fruit juice. There are no preservatives or additives in their fruit juices; it is very much about just juice.

They have done a great job in the 40 years they have been there. They have been able to access many parts of Australia and are now exporting to places like China, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia. They are also available here in Parliament House. Mountain Fresh Fruit Juices is a great product and I commend them for their efforts to establish their business and for how they have not relied on government handouts, etc., to do what they have done. They have done what they can quietly in the community and have developed their markets enormously. I think this is a great example of what regional businesses can do. I commend this motion to the house.

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (12:33): In large measure, I welcome this particular motion but, as probably anticipated, I have an amendment. I move to amend the motion as follows:

Delete paragraph (b).

The motion would now read:

That this house—

(a) recognises the vital economic contribution and important role that regional and rural South Australia plays; and

(b) notes that more than 50 per cent of South Australia's merchandise exports originate from regional South Australia.

Otherwise, the motion reads as is, with that relatively minor amendment.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Giles, could you provide a signed and seconded copy. Thank you.

Mr HUGHES: The reason for the amendment is that it is very early days in the life of this government. In my view, one of those old-fashioned views, we should not be judged on what we say we are going to do; we should actually be judged on the results. When we get down the track a bit, we will be in a position to say what might be good from this Liberal government when it comes to regional development, and the regions in general, and what might be bad. I guess one of the first indicators will be the budget in September to see what is delivered on.

One of the interesting things to date, especially in relation to some of the Dorothy Dixers that have been asked of the ministers, is the willingness to get up and speak in a very positive sense about what is going on in South Australia. However, usually in the responses to those Dorothy Dixers there is no acknowledgement that the things they are getting up and praising are in large measure a result of initiatives undertaken by the previous government.

The member for Stuart, the Minister for Energy and Mining, got up and waxed lyrical about a number of initiatives, initiatives that were well underway under the previous Labor government, and a whole raft of energy projects, mining projects and a lot of good things going on. In fact, even yesterday on the copper strategy, a great Labor initiative, they waxed lyrical about the work that has been done, the very sophisticated work, including the aerial magnetic surveying and other forms of surveying that have been done in this state to unlock our mineral potential.

In fact, when you follow the history of that particular initiative, which ultimately got the name of PACE, it went all the way back to a previous member for Giles, the late Frank Blevins. That highly innovative approach to unlocking our mineral wealth was an old Labor Party initiative. I acknowledge that the previous Liberal government did not junk that particular strategy and continued to fund it, so I commend that previous government for doing that.

There is a whole raft of other things which were Labor initiatives out there in the regions and which the Marshall government is very desirous of claiming as their initiative. We were a little bit staggered by a media release that went out to regional South Australia, especially in my electorate and the member for Flinders' electorate, with the Marshall government flagging the initiative to protect the oyster industry and talking about the funding that is being provided.

The Liberal government took credit for providing a financial boost to help the state's oyster farmers and said that the Marshall government is now stepping in and will waive almost $800,000 in fees per year over the next two years. Well, actually that was an initiative of the previous Labor government and the funding was committed. That did not go unnoted in the oyster industry and amongst the media.

I have absolutely no problem with the Marshall government claiming credit for things they do, but they need to get over trying to claim initiatives undertaken by the previous government as their own. It is a bit cheeky; maybe it is politics but, as I said, I am an old-fashioned person and I believe that credit should go where credit is due.

Much of what the member for Finniss had to say was good, and it was a reflection of a lot of those worthwhile things that are going on in regional South Australia. Of course, I, myself, come from regional South Australia. With a bit of a gap of about four of five years, I have essentially lived in regional South Australia since the age of 10, in a community that has been based on mining and manufacturing.

You could well argue that our bent or nuance when it comes to regions is some of those larger manufacturing communities: for instance, the manner in which the state Labor government went to the assistance of Port Pirie when the smelter was under threat and the manner in which the state Labor government went to the assistance of Whyalla when it was facing an existential threat. On top of that, though, we have not been hostile to the primary producers in this state.

Indeed, under the terms of the previous Labor government, the primary industry sector grew. I do not put that down exclusively or anywhere near exclusively to the government. We all know that when it comes to primary industry and to a whole range of other industries all sorts of factors are at play, and it is often global factors that are at play. It might be the state of the Australian dollar or seasonal conditions in Russia, the United States or Canada. There are all sorts of influences when it comes to having an impact on primary industry and other industries in our state.

I will point out that in 2016 there were record levels reached in South Australia in food and wine gross revenue. It was just short of $20 billion. There was a lot of other good stuff done under the umbrella of the previous state government, but the real credit goes to the primary producers themselves. That is due to the way they have worked over many years and adapted to the conditions, though government does have a role in assisting.

As a state government, we hear that we never did anything for 16 years. I do not know where you were for 16 years if you actually believe that is the case. There were many worthwhile initiatives undertaken by the previous state government to assist regional South Australia. I touched on the PACE program. You can look at some of the real specifics of where the previous state government got into bed—and this is picking winners—with particular companies to enhance the exploration endeavours in this state.

In my electorate, there is the OZ Minerals Carrapateena development. That was the direct result of the state government going into partnership with a small explorer. As a result of that, over 1,000 jobs are going to be created. Construction has already started at the mine site, so there will be around 500 jobs there during the construction phase, and it is anticipated that when the mine is up and running there will be about 500 jobs there.

We can look at a number of examples like that where the tangible input on the part of the state government has made a real difference. There is talk of the Regional Growth Fund and the criteria being established, and people have been encouraged to put in their bids. In some respects, that is just a rebranding of the program that we already had in place under the Labor government, which also had a $150 million commitment over 10 years. Ours was going to be CPI adjusted, but I am not sure if those opposite are going to CPI adjust.

Time expired.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (12:44): I rise to support the original motion of the member for Finniss:

That this house—

(a) recognises the vital economic contribution and important role that regional and rural South Australia plays;

(b) acknowledges the state Liberal government’s focus and commitment to growing the regional South Australian economy; and

(c) notes that more than 50 per cent of South Australia’s merchandise exports originate from regional South Australia.

I know we have differing points of view in this place sometimes, but we got to about eight minutes into the member for Giles' speech—and I do acknowledge that he is a regional member; he is the regional member for the Labor Party—before I could agree with anything he said.

An honourable member: It's a lonely task.

Mr PEDERICK: It is a lonely task, a lone voice in that wilderness. I commend him for holding his seat. In fact, I happened to be in William Creek the other day. The boundary line is the Oodnadatta Track, and I could be in Stuart one minute and Giles the next, the two biggest seats in the state. It was a very interesting place to—

Mr Hughes: Yes, but the member for Stuart gets the pub and our side misses out on the pub.

Mr PEDERICK: Yes, well, I slept in your electorate, and I might have met some new friends in the member for Stuart's electorate. Be that as it may, the member for Giles gave some interesting reflections. Over the whole time I have been in this place, apart from being the member for Hammond and a farmer, I have been a shadow parliamentary secretary for agriculture and I have been a shadow minister for agriculture. That does not mean that I am an expert, but I guess I know a bit about the subject.

Sadly, what I saw over all the time I have been here was money ripped out of the primary industries budget—ripped out time and again. It saddened me as time went on, under the relentless bashing on the regions by the previous Labor government, when decades ago we had such a strong focus on agriculture and how we in fact—and I have mentioned this in the house before—exported our skills to the world. When I say 'our skills', we took our technology—our John Shearer equipment and other equipment—to the Middle East, for example, and taught other people not just how to farm but to farm with product made right here in South Australia.

I agree with the member for Giles that it is the farmers who make the difference. They certainly do, and they contribute across our regional economy in this state $25 billion in final finished food products. Sadly, while the member for Giles knows what it is like to go north of Gepps Cross, not many others on the other side do. In fact, when the previous government was in place they had to set up regional cabinet meetings, and the ministers had to look up mapping apps so they could work out where regional South Australia was and how to get there.

Ms Wortley interjecting:

Mr PEDERICK: No, it is a fact. I have heard the stories. I have heard the previous minister say, 'How far away to this place?' in conversations they have had with members from this side. Our side has regional members from right across South Australia, from down at MacKillop right over to the West Coast and the beautiful area the member for Flinders represents. Apart from that, we have members right throughout the Fleurieu as well as Yorke Peninsula—the member for Narungga—and others right across.

That creates an influence on a party that is committed with its Regional Growth Fund of $150 million over 10 years and committed with a $10 million blackspot funding arrangement, instead of a paltry amount. I think it was about $1.6 million in the whole time Labor were in, I believe, for mobile blackspot funding in this state.

I talked about mobile blackspot funding just then, and I must commend Optus for some of the work they are doing in the outback at places like William Creek and Marree, where I was the other day. They have small cell technology there, working off satellite. While I was at William Creek, they had a crew there looking at expanding that process. That will connect not only the two million tourists who visit the outback every year across South Australia and the Northern Territory, and round the whole Diamantina, Queensland, and New South Wales area, but also the station owners and people who operate in that area.

On this side, to back our regional communities, we are backing regional health. We are putting more regional health practitioners into regional areas. We are certainly making sure that education is upgraded to the right standard and that people do not just stay in the regions but are attracted to regional South Australia by the many employment opportunities that are there. I tell you what, it is hard. It is very hard at the moment this year in South Australia. There are varying fortunes right across the state, with some people in serious forms of drought through to some people who are looking as if they will get a reasonable crop. From what I have seen, it is terrible in the Eastern States, especially in Queensland and New South Wales.

I would like to commend what our hardworking men and women do in regional South Australia. They have done it with very little support. On this side, we are committed to making sure that we get those right outcomes. In regard to transport, which is one thing I have not canvassed yet in my contribution, we want to make sure that we can have efficient transport systems throughout the state instead of there being a $1 billion backlog in road funding, as there is at the minute in South Australia.

We want to make sure that we get our roads back, as with those that have just had the signs changed from 110 km/h to 100 km/h. That is easy. That is the easy option. That is the option the previous government took. We lose all that productivity from people getting to where they need to be, getting products to export, and it impacts right across South Australia. With those few remarks, I commend the motion by the member for Finniss and salute the work that everyone in regional South Australia does.

Ms BETTISON (Ramsay) (12:52): I rise today to support the amendments proposed by the member for Giles to this motion. While I do not live in regional South Australia now, I was born in Whyalla, in the Spencer Gulf area. It was a very positive experience with my family and my mum and dad as they started out their life together.

I would like to reflect on some of the great Labor achievements in the regional areas. Most significantly, let's consider the 6,000 direct and indirect jobs in Whyalla with the sale of Arrium. We provided significant support to modernise and expand the Arrium steelworks. We supported 750 direct jobs and thousands of indirect jobs with the $660 million Nyrstar redevelopment in Port Pirie.

BHP added 120 new jobs to the already 350 jobs previously announced for the $350 million Olympic Dam smelter upgrade. Development of the $916 million copper mine at Carrapateena generated about 1,000 jobs in construction and 550 ongoing jobs. SolarReserve committed to building a $650 million solar thermal power station at Port Augusta, and we have seen significant greenhouse developments at Sundrop Farms near Port Augusta.

We have seen ZEN Energy's $700 million plan to establish one gigawatt of additional renewable generation assets in Whyalla and Port Augusta, and of course we cannot forget the $500 million invested in the Hornsdale wind farm near Jamestown, operated by Neoen. Costa has invested $60 million to expand its mushroom production facility at Monarto, creating 200 jobs in South Australia's Murray and Mallee region. Of course, Big River Pork's $14 million expansion will expand and enhance production at Murray Bridge.

Dairy farmers who are here in the house will know that Blue Lake Dairy Group has a $64 million expansion of its milk processing plant at Tantanoola in the state's South-East. According to the latest data from DPC, in the 12 months to April 2018 the value of South Australia's overseas goods exports total $11.8 billion, and this is up 6 per cent on the previous 12 months. We know that our regions matter and we know that they contribute to this. During this period, wine exports were up 19 per cent, wheat was up 24 per cent, petroleum-related products were up 174 per cent, copper was up 8.4 per cent, and machinery was up by 10 per cent.

Labor's premium food and wine strategy saw gross food and wine revenue reach a record $19.97 billion in 2016-17, and overseas exports of food and wine research were a record $5.64 billion. Labor backed our producers of premium food and wine through a range of measures, including the membership of the Great Wine Capitals Global Network, the introduction of the annual $1.8 million South Australian Wine Industry Development Scheme, annualising the Tasting Australia festival, and funding a range of development and export grants. I am proud of the record that we have as our state and I support the amended motion.

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (12:56): I thank all those members for making comment on the motion and I very much support the member for Hammond's words about some of the things that have been missing, particularly over the last 16 years, regarding the investment in roads. Certainly, through the area of Finniss and neighbouring seat of Mawson, the old seat of Finniss, there have been significant issues in trying to get B-double access. It is an issue not just in those areas but also through parts of the Adelaide Hills to allow the South Australian agricultural producers, horticultural producers and forestry to compete with other businesses in South Australia and interstate.

There are many areas where there has been neglect and I think it is a real shame that we have just heard that much of the focus of the regional investment of the previous 16 years has been very much around the member for Giles' electorate and adjoining areas. To me, that is not the regions of South Australia; that is one region of South Australia, and we need to make sure the areas right around rural parts of South Australia are recognised.

We need to make sure that those communities receive the same support that we have seen going to other communities across the state, both metropolitan and regional, to make sure that we see our state continue to prosper. As we see here on the carpet of this chamber, the key parts of this economy of South Australia have very much been based on the regions with the wheat and the grapes. I certainly commend my motion to the house without the amendment.

Amendment negatived; motion carried.

Sitting suspended from 12:59 to 14:00.

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