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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-02-05 Daily Xml
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Drought Assistance

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (15:05): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier please inform the house what drought relief and support his government has given South Australian farmers? With your leave and that of the house, Mr Speaker, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr McBRIDE: I believe that the South Australian Labor government have about an $18 million package. I've got good feedback from my constituents that they don't feel they are being looked after or understood. There has been a massive number of suggestions around council rate relief from local government, fodder interest-free loans and others. Is the Premier willing to look at further considerations around these tough seasonal conditions?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (15:06): Can I start by thanking the member for MacKillop for his question, because once again in this place he highlights the predicament that many primary producers across South Australia find themselves in.

Just to provide a little bit of context briefly, you might recall that during the course of last year the Victorian government announced a $12 million, I think it was, drought relief package for regional Victorian primary producers who were suffering similar weather conditions and circumstances to what South Australian primary producers are. The prospect was raised, not only by particularly those members who represent regional constituencies in this parliament but also by members of the community, of whether this state government would put a drought response package together.

The details of that drought response package were announced by my colleague in the other place, Minister Clare Scriven, the Minister for Primary Industries, and the Premier. This is an $18 million package that includes such measures as providing targeted subsidies for freight of fodder coming in from either other parts of South Australia or other parts of the country to support primary producers, as well as boosting some of those resources to distribute direct financial assistance and grants to primary producers or to those groups representing primary producers, as well as something that I mentioned previously in this place—a kind of necessary response from government to these sorts of measures—and that is stepping up counselling services, including financial counselling, to impacted people because that is the most acute impact that occurs, both the impact on finances and also the impact on mental health that follows.

But if the question then goes on to ask, 'Are we prepared to consider other matters?' then absolutely the answer is yes. I also realised that in the additional context that the member provided to his question, there have been suggestions about other levels of government that can provide support, whether that is the commonwealth government or local government—for example, in council rate relief. I think both of those avenues are just as worth pursuing as asking the necessary and correct question about what this government is doing as well. Indeed, my understanding is that those discussions and representations have continued to occur between this government and those other levels of government.

I am very conscious from the representations that the member for MacKillop, the member for Chaffey, the member for Hammond and others have made that many of their constituents involved in primary production are doing it incredibly tough at the moment.

We have responded in a meaningful way already and, at least in a financial sense, more meaningfully than what the Victorian government had in their package released in the second half of last year. I am very conscious the crisis isn't over for primary producers. We will continue to consult with regional communities, with primary producers, as well as their representatives, about what other measures the state government might undertake to try and ease some of the burden that these primary producers find themselves under.

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