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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-03-13 Daily Xml
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Question Time

GRAIN INDUSTRY FUND

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (14:59): My question is directed to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. Will the minister indicate the amount of money remaining in the levy which, until 29 February this year, operated under the Wheat Marketing Act 1989? Will the minister also indicate how the funds gained through that levy, as distinct from the new Grain Industry PIF scheme, will be expended?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women) (15:00): I cannot see the exact figure here. It is on the public record, though; I know I have used it doing TV and radio. There are two lots of funds outstanding in relation to the grain industry fund. There are funds that the SAFF board has collected through its grains committee before it was abandoned that were unspent, and I have forgotten the amount; I think it is in the hundreds of thousands. It is not a huge amount, but it is in that vicinity.

Once they had abandoned their grains committee, they then constitutionally did not have the capacity to spend those funds, so there are those funds that have accrued that were not able to be spent, and there were funds that I took over when the grains committee was abandoned by SAFF. The funds are collected by me, and legislation requires that I pass on those funds to SAFF's grains committee.

In the interests of the industry, when there was no constitutional body to which I could hand over those funds, I maintained those funds but have no legislative capacity to spend those funds, because they can only be spent through handing them over to SAFF. So, I have accrued funds and have absolutely assured the industry that with any funds I have accrued we will develop a mechanism that ensures they are spent in the interests of the industry.

I have asked SAFF and the growers group to come together and work out a position in terms of how they see those funds best being spent to serve the industry, and they were unable to do that. They were unable to meet and devise a project they could mutually agree on in terms of how to spend those unspent funds in the best interests of the industry. That is a pretty tragic indictment.

So we have had to go away and try to put forward other positions to resolve this. I am committed to ensuring that those funds, as legally required, are spent in the best interests of the industry, and I will certainly do everything in my powers to resolve this conflict within the industry and to ensure that those unspent moneys go into the industry in a constructive way, because we know that our grains industry is very important to South Australia. It is a very large industry and contributes significantly to the economics of this state.

It is a very significant economic contributor, and there are many worthy projects that these funds could be spent on in terms of assisting to develop new markets or even around R&D. The moneys can be spent in a wide range of ways as long as they are in the interests of the industry. I could not believe that these two groups could not get together and resolve this, so we are still working with SAFF to get an agreement in terms of how we can move on and inject those funds into the industry.

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