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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-04-11 Daily Xml
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GRAIN INDUSTRY

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:03): I seek leave to make a very brief, important explanation before asking the minister for primary industries a very important question on grain and on comments from Mr Brock, the member for Frome.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: Hot off the press today in the Stock Journal the editorial expresses concerns regarding grain handling and infrastructure and, in fact, the select committee that was put up both in our house, the Legislative Council, and in the lower house, the House of Assembly. I quote:

Independent Member for Frome Geoff Brock, who was chairman of the Select Committee on Grain Handling, expressed his disappointment at the meeting—

this was the meeting of the Grain Producers SA annual general meeting—

about the government's lack of action on the committee's recommendations. He said very little had been done to resolve transport issues, competition at ports, establishment of a standing committee on primary industries, research and development liaisons with interstate facilities and the distribution of stocks information.

The editorial then goes on:

As the committee contained Labor, Liberal and crossbench MPs, the lack of progress is embarrassing.

My questions to the minister—and I acknowledge that she is not responsible for all the portfolio areas involved in the recommendations thus far—are:

1. Is the government serious about delivering for the grain industry in South Australia and supporting the resources and efforts of members of parliament in both houses with respect to the select committee?

2. When will the government start to act on some of the recommendations?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (15:05): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. Indeed, this government does take seriously the reports that come out of its committees. It is not always able to fulfil all the recommendations that come out of them—sometimes they are very ambitious—but wherever possible we do attempt to progress those issues.

There was a coordinated cross-government response to what was a quite extensive and detailed series of recommendations. I believe in most areas the government has made some positive commitment to progress those recommendations in some capacity or other; in fact, I do not recall exactly, but I do not think there were any recommendations rejected outright. If there were, there certainly were not many; the government indicated willingness, in some capacity, to progress most of them. That report was compiled not all that long ago, although I cannot give an exact date.

I am happy to provide this place with details of the progress on those matters. Most of the actions are the responsibility of other agencies, but I will attempt to collate a progress report from across government and provide that to the member.

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