Primary Industry Cooperatives

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (16:04): I think my colleague has just given me the call, Mr President, so I would like to seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question to the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills about legislative barriers to cooperatives in South Australia.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: Members would be well aware that I have raised in this place previously the wonderful opportunity cooperatives can provide for employment, particularly in Adelaide and South Australia. In fact, across the world the international cooperative alliances estimated that cooperatives provide 100 million jobs worldwide, 20 per cent more than multinational enterprises. In fact, if you were to combine the economic activity of the 300 largest cooperatives in the world, that would equate to the tenth largest national economy.

The minister would be well aware of the wonderful news yesterday with regard to the Ingham turkey workers, who hope to take over a South Australian factory that is scheduled to close this month. That group of workers from the closing Ingham turkey processing plant in McLaren Vale are working with local producers to take over that factory and are investigating a cooperative model. I was very pleased to hear the state agricultural minister, Leon Bignell, state that the government will fund a feasibility study to begin after valuers assess the existing facility in the next few days. My questions to the minister in her portfolio are:

1. Is the minister aware of any barriers that are known to the establishment of cooperatives in South Australia?

2. Are those barriers of a legislative framework and do those frameworks cover state and federal legislation?

3. Is the government investigating any way to lift any known barriers or to investigate current barriers to encourage cooperatives in South Australia?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (16:06): I thank the honourable member for her question, and yes, indeed, the government is very supportive of the initiative with the cooperative arrangements around Ingham's. I am not aware of any legislative barriers around cooperatives. To the best of my knowledge no-one has ever raised those with me. If the honourable member wants to direct my attention to some specific issues of concern, I invite her to do so, either by meeting with me or emailing me.