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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-05-14 Daily Xml
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Biosecurity Management

Ms LUETHEN (King) (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Can the minister update the house on how the state government is working with industry to improve biosecurity in the Northern Adelaide Plains?

Ms Hildyard interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Reynell can leave for the rest of question time, thank you. When she does, the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development will have the call.

The honourable member for Reynell having withdrawn from the chamber:

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister. Thank you.

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE (Chaffey—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (14:52): I thank the member for her very important question. I know that she was very excited to join me and the member for Grey, recently, down at Two Wells to make the announcement. It was a fantastic opportunity because I know that the member for King is a very fastidious, clean and particular person, particularly being an advocate for on-farm—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE: Those on that side might not even know what immaculate is.

Mr Hughes interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Giles is called to order.

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE: What I can say is that government have provided the funding for—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE: —the initiative for Clean Your Farm. That announcement was made last week, and, as I said, the funding has come from a government who is delivering an election commitment to grow our economy and open up new export markets. We were joined by AUSVEG. It was also great to have the chair, Kingsley Songer; the CE, Jordan Brooke-Barnett; and the spokesman for the Vietnamese Farmers Association, Charlie Luong. Charlie Luong has a huge amount of respect within the Northern Adelaide Plains food producing area, and he has been a long-time advocate for that area to clean up its act to make sure that we have strict hygiene and cleanliness and tidy farms.

The initiative has been brought to the fore because we are dealing with issues around biosecurity. We are dealing with issues about the perception that we have a farming sector and a food producing sector that are second to none. I know that the member for King has been a very strong advocate for the drumMUSTER program, as well as now working with Jeffries in recycling the Rockwool products. Those Rockwool products that many of you see sitting on pallets around many of our glasshouses are now able to be recycled. When they are recycled, it means it's cleaning up the areas in which we are growing food.

When we have our markets come to the Northern Adelaide Plains, they now have a perception that we are clean and green and that we are responsible farmers with biosecurity as an absolute priority. It is also important to note that, working with the Northern Adelaide Plains, there are huge opportunities now with the construction of the Northern Adelaide Plains irrigation district—the extension that will now see more and more opportunity for growing more food, to grow products that we can export to the world.

This is the opportunity the Northern Adelaide Plains has been given not only with the extension of the water pipeline but also it is now a young set out there, particularly led by a young fellow, the Young Grower of the Year, who is known as Aussie Kev. Aussie Kev is the face of the young farming sector out in the Northern Adelaide Plains. The advocacy that he shows, the leadership that he shows, is by example. He doesn't go out there and tell the farmers how they need to be doing it. He leads by example, and he now has a following. Wherever he goes, the people follow him. They do what he does: cleaning farms, growing good produce and growing what the world is looking for. It is a great initiative.

Clean Your Farm is a great initiative. I am sure that all of us in this chamber would be very proud to see those farms out there clean up, making sure that they are leaders when it comes to food production and making sure that we adhere to the biosecurity regime. We know that we have had scares back in 2017 with the cucumber mosaic virus. We know that we had the potato spindle tuber viroid back in 2011. We don't want a repeat of those situations, and that is why Clean Your Farm is a great initiative, because #RegionsMatter.

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