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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-10-15 Daily Xml
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Agricultural Sector, Business Confidence

The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO (15:12): I seek leave to provide a brief explanation before asking my questions to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development regarding business confidence in agriculture.

Leave granted.

The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO: In the September 2024 Roy Morgan Business Confidence report, South Australia was listed as the second lowest state in business confidence for the months of August and September 2024. Agriculture was listed as the lowest industry business confidence at 64.2 per cent compared to the overall 97.8 per cent for all other businesses. My questions to the minister are:

1. Why, does the minister believe, is agriculture reported as the lowest business confidence in this state?

2. What actions will the minister undertake to restore business confidence within the agricultural sector?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (15:13): I thank the honourable member for her question. I would have thought it was fairly obvious that a state that is experiencing drought, that has experienced floods, experiencing frost would result in quite low business confidence.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: I note the interjections of asking me what I am doing about frost and about drought and about floods. I don't actually have control over the weather—I certainly wish that I did. I think those opposite need to start looking at the tenor of their questions. It's something that we have continued to work with industry on. I outlined earlier in this question time the sorts of engagement that we have at the moment, the wide range of programs that is offered through the state government, as well as mentioning some of those that are available through the federal government.

The Leader of the Opposition in this place actually touched earlier on a really important aspect, which is that we need to make sure that farmers, primary producers, regional communities, members, are all aware of the assistance that is available. Through my interactions, it becomes clear quite often that some people in the community are not aware of how they can access those programs, or not aware of the existence of the programs, and sometimes not aware that if they had engaged with a program with some similarities perhaps 10 years ago that they have actually changed—for example, there might be changes to the requirements or the eligibility criteria.

I really do encourage anyone who is experiencing financial difficulties due to these many events, a number of which are compounding, to get in contact with Family and Business Support mentors. They can offer and act as a triage, if you like, or as a point of contact to be able to point people in the right direction in terms of the assistance that is available.

Some of the things that can be assisted include, for example, revising farm business plans to take into account the current conditions. There has been a lot of work done in drought preparation, drought resilience and so on. There are wideranging options that people can consider, and I would really strongly encourage them to take that first step, contact the FaB mentors and make sure that they are accessing those programs that may be of benefit to them.

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