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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-07-31 Daily Xml
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Seafood Industry

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (14:30): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Can the minister update the house on how the state government is delivering on its election commitments for the seafood sector?

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE (Chaffey—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (14:30): Yes, I can, and I thank the member for Flinders for his very important question. Once again, he was a great host on the weekend. I travelled over to Port Lincoln to unveil the bronze statue, the Tuna Poler. It is a great story for Port Lincoln—it is a great story for the fishing industry by and large—as the nation's headquarters for fisheries.

We have seen Ken Martin, a great sculptor. Not only has he done some outstanding timber work but he has now undertaken some really, really good bronze statue work over at Port Lincoln, not only Makybe Diva, and many of you have seen that sculpture, but we now have the Tuna Poler, and it is outstanding. It depicts part of the tuna industry's history. From $2 a kilo to $45 a kilo, the tuna poler started that industry off.

Just as importantly, on Friday night I was also at the South Australian Seafood Industry Awards and made an announcement there that we as a government are going to establish a forum for the South Australian seafood industry and how that industry can grow together. For many, many years we have seen a sector that is made up of a lot of components that have been very, very fragmented. We now have an opportunity for an advisory forum. The announcement was to establish an advisory forum that not only encompasses the commercial sector, the charter fishing sector, the recreational sector, but also Aboriginal traditional fishing, aquaculture and seafood processing. They are all vital components in the fishing industry here in South Australia.

We know that the seafood sector has been overpromised and underdelivered over the last 16 years of the previous government. This government is working with the seafood sector to help it grow, bring it together so they can actually speak with a single voice so that the sector can grow together, not divide together. What this election commitment will do is establish a forum, that each sector can develop a growth plan, and that growth plan is on an individual silo basis, that they will develop a plan for themselves. Then, we will bring them together so they can sit at the table and we can work out how we can increase the value and the volume of the sectors and how we can also look after our pristine marine environment—not only the marine environment but also our waterway environment—for a very important sector.

Once we have established these individual plans, it will become very clear that a 10-year growth plan will be developed, and it has to be achievable, with a vision to establish the goals and to be able to achieve them. It is all very well to establish goals and have aspirations, but to be able to achieve those goals is more important than anything else. The consultation process is underway. The website is open. The PIRSA website was opened at 7 o'clock on that Friday night. The consultation will close on 23 August. I am very much looking forward to receiving feedback on a consultation paper outlining the seafood industry forum. After that consultation process has been through, we will look for nominations to further develop that forum on behalf of the whole seafood sector.

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