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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-09-02 Daily Xml
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Drought Assistance

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ben Hood, you will be watched closely this week, too, being a Collingwood supporter. Be very careful with your behaviour this week.

The Hon. B.R. HOOD (14:50): I will take that on notice, to look after myself, Mr President. I seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question to the quasi member for Mount Gambier and Minister for Primary Industries regarding drought.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. Maher: One quasi to another quasi.

The Hon. B.R. HOOD: One quasi to another! During the Budget and Finance meeting, the department, when asked whether they had provided advice to the minister around no or low-concession loans, the Chief Executive of PIRSA stated, and I quote:

We have been asked to provide advice. We have worked with our colleagues in Queensland and New South Wales to understand some of the processes they have, and the rest of that would be a consideration for the government minister.

Mr Brett Bartel, Director of Emergency Management, Drought and Resistance, then added, and I quote:

We probably provided in the last two to four weeks details around, as Mehdi described, how schemes are run interstate, and what some options would be.

So my question to the minister is: when will the minister release that advice and the government's decision?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:51): I thank the honourable member, and quasi member, for his question.

The Hon. B.R. Hood interjecting:

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: Been there, done that. In terms of seeking advice from my department, I of course, throughout the situation with the drought, have been seeking advice from the department on a variety of matters, including what sorts of approaches have occurred in other jurisdictions. We continue to get that advice and to consider its applicability to South Australia. Of course, one of the things that has become clear is that the $73 million drought support package by the Malinauskas Labor government is the biggest drought support package ever put out by a South Australian government. That was one of the things that we have learned through the comparison with other states.

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