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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-10-15 Daily Xml
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Drought Assistance

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (14:39): I seek leave to make a brief explanation prior to asking a question of the Minister for Primary Industries on the topic of drought support.

Leave granted.

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI: One of the goals of the National Drought Agreement 2024-2029 is that, 'The agricultural sector and rural communities are appropriately supported in hard times, and know what support is available and how to access it.' Many farmers around the state are declaring this one of the worst years on record. As reported in The Advertiser on 29 September, President of Livestock SA, Joe Keynes, has insisted the Premier acknowledge their difficulties. Mr Keynes said:

We would like an early response from the government and it would be great to have acknowledgement from the premier supporting us - it would mean something. Year in, year out, agriculture gives SA a good solid economic base…we don't usually ask for much but we just need some support through this.

Miles Hannemann, Keith farmer, said in that same article that Peter Malinauskas must acknowledge the conditions facing farmers and said, 'There's an old saying SA finishes at the toll gate and that's how we're feeling at the moment.' My questions to the minister are:

1. Does the minister believe that her government are appropriately supporting the agricultural sector?

2. Given the $13.53 million drought support package offered by the Victorian government to Victorian farmers, what additional new funding has the South Australian government committed to?

3. What, if any, additional new measures has the minister and her government put in place to support the agricultural sector and rural communities in this state?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:41): I thank the honourable member for her questions. In regard to the first piece of commentary in regard to the National Drought Agreement and that it is important for farmers to know what is available and how to access it, I think that is actually a very key point. It might be one of the few occasions where the Leader of the Opposition in this place and I agree: that it is important that we actually get that information out to the farmers. As I outlined in my answer to a previous question just today, there is a wide range of support that is already available.

The Hon. N.J. Centofanti interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: While the question is not directly about this, I will take the opportunity to mention, because there are still some misunderstandings around drought declarations, that members may or may not be aware that in the past there needed to be an official drought declaration to enable certain assistance to be accessed. Part of the National Drought Agreement is a recognition that different areas can be in drought conditions, not necessarily an entire area, and it is inappropriate, for example, to have declarations on this side of the road that they are in drought and the farmer across the road doesn't have that same declaration.

From memory, it has now been something like 10 years since there have been official drought declarations. I think it is important for anyone out in the community talking with drought-affected farmers and others to be aware of that.

In terms of the Premier's engagement, we certainly had multiple discussions around this, and in fact just recently in Mount Gambier I met with a number of farmers with the Premier, in addition to the other ongoing stakeholder meetings I have in a formal sense, as well as a number of farmers and other stakeholders I have met with. The honourable member referred to the Victorian government's package. My advice is that quite a number of the things covered under that package are things South Australia has already been doing.

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