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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-03-04 Daily Xml
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Grape Prices

The Hon. S.L. GAME (14:36): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before directing a question to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development regarding indicative grape prices for Riverland growers.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.L. GAME: In the past five years, Riverland grapegrowers have received prices below the costs of production. Many of the 1,000 grapegrowers in the Riverland face financial ruin in 2026 if grape processors fail to release indicative prices for wine grapes on 30 September 2025 for the following year, and if any mediation between growers and processors is not finalised before 31 October 2025. Knowing these prices will limit cartel behaviour and will give growers time to make business decisions relating to how much water they will lease and how much fertiliser and other inputs they will require, if any. My questions to the Minister for Primary Industries are:

1. Will the minister regulate grape processors in South Australia so they must publish their indicative prices for wine grapes on 30 September 2025 and every year on that date?

2. Will the minister regulate grape processors in South Australia so that expert determination in the voluntary code of conduct for Australian wine grape purchases is four weeks?

3. If the minister will not act on either of the two proposals, what will the minister do to limit the market power of grape processors, who set the prices without adequate transparency and accountability to the people of the Riverland and other grapegrowing areas in South Australia?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:37): I thank the honourable member for her question. I think it is certainly fair to say that there has been a widespread call for indicative grape prices to be released earlier. Certainly, I have raised that with some of the major wineries when I have had meetings with them, and I am aware that it has been raised at both the wine and grape working group hearings as well as, I believe, the recent Senate inquiry that was held.

In terms of the state government's ability to regulate and the advisability of doing so, I do think we need to look at this in the broader context. Industries obviously have some regulation; there are frequent calls for less regulation in our market economy. In terms of what we have done, certainly the grape and wine working group report, which included a study by Kym Anderson, talked about the need for structural reform within the wine industry, remembering that this was a national approach that was looking at the longstanding issues, as well as the immediate issues being faced. The state government has certainly provided a range of measures; I have spoken about those previously in this place.

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