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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-06-06 Daily Xml
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Question Time

FOOD AND WINE INDUSTRY

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:19): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries a question regarding the mysterious case of missing millions.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: In 2010, Labor began setting up a consumer market innovation centre. It was to be an alliance between the state government, industry, leading researchers and the University of Kent. The university has five campuses—Canterbury, Medway, Tonbridge (in Kent), Brussels and Paris—so its involvement in Adelaide was regarded as big news. Kent's alumni include Sir David Aker-Jones, former acting governor of Hong Kong, Fu Ying, the Vice Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China, cricketer David Fulton, and E.L. James, author of Fifty Shades of Grey. Here, Kent's involvement was to be through the university's value chain centre, run under the direction of the university's Professor Andrew Fearne.

South Australia, in this plan, would see the centre become a national focus for consumer and market insight research and product and process innovation for the food and wine industry. However, the centre was never opened because it was never built; it was quietly, even secretly, scuttled, and sank without a trace. All that remains is an oily slick on the surface.

Yesterday, the minister told the parliament that the 'decision was later made to allocate those...funds to Food SA and [to] the South Australian Wine Industry Council'. My questions are:

1. When was the decision made to scrap the centre?

2. When was the decision publicly announced, and how?

3. When was the University of Kent told its involvement would no longer be needed?

4. What costs were incurred in the setting up of the centre before it was scrapped?

5. When the funds were reallocated, as the minister claimed yesterday, to Food SA and the Wine Industry Council, how much extra did those bodies receive, in what year did they receive it, and when did the government announce this magnanimity?

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) (14:21): I thank the honourable member for his important question. Indeed, in 2010 the minister for primary industries at the time agreed to develop a consumer and marketing centre. As I put on record in this place yesterday, the minister at the time—I believe it was the Hon. Mr O'Brien—after consultation with the industry, determined that there were better ways to invest that money into our primary industries.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: It probably was announced at the time. The opposition never listens to anything. It always gets its facts wrong, and it has them wrong in this case. It gets it wrong time and time again.

We know that the minister had considerable consultation with the industry at the time, and the industry very much supported these funds being distributed in a different way to achieve very similar outcomes for the industry. We know, for instance, that there were two associations supporting the South Australian food industry at the time: Food Adelaide, which focused on exporting food and beverage companies; and Flavour SA, which supported smaller food companies. At that time the industry itself expressed a willingness to develop a single representative food industry peak body, which was known as Food SA.

Food Adelaide was situated out at Regency Park, and the 2010 initiative was to be focused out there to couple with those activities. However, as the Hon. David Ridgway probably does not realise, Food SA relocated to the Waite Institute, so it would seem quite reasonable, given that they received a grant to undertake some of this activity, that they be able to link with the other experts and the technical support available at the Waite Institute.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: They do not listen, Mr President. I have just outlined the historic structure and how they came together, and how they relocated to the Waite. The honourable member needs to go and read the Hansard; or listen, that would be a good start. It would be silly to put something out at Regency when all the action was occurring at the Waite. I understand the then minister determined that supporting key development programs with the industry associations would be an effective way to grow the food and wine industry in South Australia. That was, as I said, supported by the industry at the time, so this was all done in consultation with the industry and supported by the industry.

The strategy was revised and I am advised that, as a result of that decision, Primary Industries entered into grant funding agreements with Food SA and the South Australian Wine Industry Association to deliver programs that would improve the capacity of the state's food and wine businesses. Just for the record, I think I said yesterday it was the South Australian Wine Industry Council. It is not; the association is the SAWIA, just so that record is corrected.

The key outcomes for food and wine sectors from this funding have included things like the establishment of a thriving peak industry body representing the South Australian food industry; the delivery of regional programs, including the Eyre Peninsula market development program, which is about growing international sales for the seafood industry; an Eat Local campaign which was recently launched to encourage people to eat South Australian produce; a Regional & Seasonal program at the Central Market; the South Australian Food User Guide has been developed to highlight our projects, particularly in China; and a sustainability program in collaboration with Zero Waste developed to help new food processing and manufacturing businesses consider their environmental sustainability, which obviously pays dividends for food businesses.

There is a long list of things that have been achieved with these grants that are absolutely consistent with our original position and initiative to grow food and wine marketing opportunities and businesses. These funds have also been utilised to do things like manage the South Australian presence at the numerous food and wine international trade events like HOFEX, Food and Hotel Asia, and SIAL in Shanghai. These are huge events—absolutely amazing events.

Key industry development outcomes for the SAWIA grant funding have been the development of a wine market development program that has delivered increased export awareness and developed workshops throughout the regional wine areas of South Australia, and most recently 'Adelaide: The Wine Capital of Australia' was launched, adopting a new state brand in the campaign designed to boost wine and tourism and cellar door sales.

Also, the industry development activities undertaken by PIRSA to support that program have been the delivery of a number of investment attraction initiatives, including supporting capital flows in agribusiness; detailed value chain and market summary reports on opportunities in the horticulture, grains, meat and livestock, and seafood industries; and, of course, a number of key trade delegations that PIRSA has led, to China in particular.

We see that a great deal of activity has occurred in that space. I understand that the funds that were made available for the initial initiative were about $1.1 million, roundabout that amount. Food SA was given a grant of just over $0.5 million; it was $550,000. The SAWIA was given a grant of $250,000, and $300,000 was retained for the development of investment opportunities, and I have listed a number of those—the delegations, the representation at international events, and suchlike. I believe that that was from 2010-11 for four years and I understand that most of those funds have been expended for those purposes. All of those funds have just about been directed to the activities, the initiatives, that were the original intention back in 2010.

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