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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-09-07 Daily Xml
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Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson) (15:28): I, too, rise to congratulate Liz Truss on her appointment as the Prime Minister of the UK and look forward to our government reaching out to her to help us deal with the crisis that is facing the wine industry at the moment. We have been hit by tariff increases of 116 per cent to 232 per cent in China, which has really damaged the wine sector. In the UK, we are facing a proposal for a change to the taxation regime over there which would do further damage to South Australia's wine industry. I was in London a few weeks ago. I met with the Deputy High Commissioner and other people at the High Commission who are involved in this, as well as people from the wine sector and those who are involved in lobbying the government.

Obviously, it was in a period when we did not know who the Prime Minister of the UK was going to be and we did not know what the cabinet make-up was going to look like. Now we have that certainty, we will be reaching out and doing everything we can, as a state government, to make sure that those in power in the UK know the damage that this increase in taxation on wine would do to our workers and our businesses in South Australia.

I thank the Treasurer, the Deputy Premier, the Minister for Trade and other members of our frontbench who have been working closely with the industry. We have been in a holding pattern for the past few weeks because of this uncertainty about who would win the leadership of the Conservative Party. Now that we know who has those roles, we will be reaching out to them and, alongside the federal government, doing everything we can to put forward our story.

In the area that I represent, the seat of Mawson, we have wineries in McLaren Vale, in the Kangaroo Island wine region and on Fleurieu Peninsula around Yankalilla as well. We have thousands of people employed in the food, wine and tourism sector. We have hundreds of businesses, and they all rely on exports to make sure that the money keeps coming in and that, importantly, the wine keeps going out. After two excellent seasons, we have a glut of Australian wine and we need to be doing everything we possibly can.

Exports are down 26 per cent year on year, import costs have doubled in the past year and it is up to everyone to make sure that we replace as much of that huge China market as we can. You cannot just go out and find another China market or other countries that will pay the sorts of prices and import the volumes China used to take up from Australia. It was an unbelievable boost to our wine sector in Australia. What we need to do is make sure that in other markets we are doing everything we possibly can.

Last month, I was in Toronto to meet with the President and CEO of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, Mr George Soleas, and also the Vice President of Merchandising, Abhay Garg. It was disappointing to hear that they do not hear from Wine Australia. Wine Australia has two important roles: one is research and one is building new markets and trade. If they are not out there selling to people overseas, then that is a disgrace.

The Liquor Control Board of Ontario is a monopoly owned by the state government, the provincial government of Ontario. They are the second biggest buyer of liquor in the world, and they are telling me they hear from Napa Valley, from Italy, from Argentina, from Chile, from all these places, but they do not hear from Australia. In Ontario, last year Australian wine sales dropped 15 per cent. That is at a time when we should be out there trying to grow wine sales by 15 per cent.

My message to Wine Australia is, 'Get off your backsides, get out and do the work that you are paid well to do. You are funded by the taxpayers of Australia.' This is a huge industry, a very important industry for people like the member for Chaffey and his constituents and the member for Schubert and other members in here who represent wine regions. It is a crying shame to see what has happened because of the China fallout. We are going to see companies fall over, and we are going to see grapes left to rot next vintage if we do not do something about it. Wine Australia really needs to get off its backside, get out there and do the work that the taxpayers expect them to do.

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