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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-02-18 Daily Xml
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MATTERS OF INTEREST

RURAL WOMAN OF THE YEAR

The Hon. C.V. SCHAEFER (15:31): Today it was my pleasure to attend the 10th Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) rural women's award. It is in fact the 14th such award in this state. The original awards for rural woman of the year were awarded by ABC Radio; however, RIRDC has taken on that sponsorship. The first time it took on that sponsorship in the year 2000, so this is the 10th anniversary of the Rural Woman of the Year Award.

I congratulate the winner, Susi Tegan, who lives in Furner in the South-East but who is the Managing Director of the Eyre Peninsula initiative known as Free Eyre. Susi I can relate to very closely, given that she lives some four hours to the south of Adelaide and then travels to Eyre Peninsula for much of her work. I congratulate her and the other two finalists, Ulli Spranz from Paris Creek Biodynamic Farms and Sharon Honner from Maitland on Yorke Peninsula.

The minister pointed out today that only 7 per cent of rural and agriculture business boards in Australia are represented by women; only 7 per cent of the boards are made up of women. For the first two recipients of this award, their major prize is to travel to Canberra and do the company directors course, so it certainly opens up opportunities for women.

The minister pointed out that 51 per cent of the population of rural South Australia is made up of women, so they are certainly lagging behind in their representation on agri-business boards. It also gives a great deal of confidence to those people who pursue, if you like, extensions to their current work within their farms.

Part of the award to the winner is a $10,000 bursary to do a project related to rural South Australia, and I am particularly interested in Susi Tegan's proposed project. She intends to travel to Europe, the USA and Canada to look at self-development marketing opportunities for regional South Australia. She is Managing Director of Free Eyre, which is a farmer-driven group that identifies opportunities for new business on Eyre Peninsula.

It has as its base a new form of cooperative, whereby the proceeds from any new businesses as they are seed funded are divided between members of Free Eyre. As with most things, economics is also cyclical, and we are looking at a period of time within rural South Australia where many of us will have to consider reverting to a cooperative form of marketing, and it will have to be new and innovative and nothing like the old forms of cooperatives.

It is my personal and strong view that, while the old cooperatives gave people a sense of security, they tended to lull people into managerial laziness where they were willing to accept the lowest common denominator from the producers who were part of the cooperative. Free Eyre is quite different in that its entire board is made up of skills-based members rather than financial contributors to that cooperative system. It is in its infancy as a method of marketing on Eyre Peninsula, but it is a positive and forward thinking move. I hope that Suzi's research is able to be applied to industries across South Australia and I wish her well.

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