Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The grape industry is an area of great interest to me and has been of great interest to me all my life. I can remember picking our own grapes. We had 220 acres of grapes at Happy Valley, where I grew up. I remember picking them for thruppence a bucket, when the buckets were four to the hundredweight and of course 20 hundredweight to the tonne. An average picker could pick 80 buckets in a day and the top guns could pick 100 buckets a day. That is how far back my own history with the grape industry goes.

One of the great pleasures of being the member for Barker has been representing Australia’s grape-growing industry—at one stage, about 43 per cent of it. It is a very important part of my electorate. And, yes, there is a small part of the Barossa in the member for Wakefield’s seat. It is that little bit outside the Barossa council region, just over the Para River, and they do grow some good grapes there. But the majority of the Barossa is in my electorate.

I also represent the Riverland, which is a huge producer in itself. At one stage, 25 per cent of Australia’s grapes came from the Riverland area in South Australia. That has changed a bit. I do not have the latest figures but, with the drought and the lack of irrigation due to the reduced allocations, I am sure that percentage has reduced a bit. There is no doubt that the Riverland in South Australia still represents, by itself, a very large part of Australia’s grape production.

I also have the pleasure of representing other great grape-growing and winemaking areas. The Coonawarra is one of my favourites. Of course, in this job, you cannot pick a favourite because other regions will say, ‘Well, what about us?’ The Coonawarra are very well recognised worldwide for their cabernets and their shiraz, and their chardonnays are coming into high esteem all around the world. I have other great areas in my electorate such as Padthaway, the Mount Benson area down by Robe, and an up-and-coming area called the Wrattonbully. Wrattonbully is producing some sensational wines. Anyone who is interested in wine should be looking favourably on anything—in the reds especially but also in the whites—coming out of the Wrattonbully area. The area is about halfway between Padthaway and the Coonawarra, so you can get a feel of its climatic conditions. It has some very good soils. I am known by some of my colleagues as the ‘member for wine’ because of these great wine areas, and I am often asked my opinion on certain wines. Can I say I am quite happy to give it at any time! It is certainly one of the great pleasures of life to represent the seat.

We should also recognize our forebears, who went to the trouble of planting vines. A lot of that in the Barossa, for example, is due to the area’s German and Lutheran heritage. I think 90 per cent of Lutherans in Australia are in South Australia, and about 90 per cent of them are in my seat of Barker, which means I am not only the member for wine but also the member for Lutherans, in many ways. That is not a coincidence because the two go hand in hand. For probably 160 years they have been very important to our history in the grape industry in South Australia, and they have been a very strong part of making Australia the success it is in producing wine.

The Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation Amendment Bill 2009 amends the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation Act 1980. On our side we have quite a bit of goodwill towards this legislation. It does the right things and I suspect we would have done exactly the same if we were in government. It has wholehearted support across the chamber. As I said, it is of great interest to me and my electorate. Certainly all of the wonderful regions are world-renowned: the Barossa, Coonawarra, Padthaway and all the other areas are recognised worldwide. Unfortunately, as the member for Wakefield said, the wine industry is currently experiencing tough conditions, with the drought causing ongoing issues with low water allocations, and that means lower production levels.

Growers are facing much uncertainty about their future. That is a shame because it is a great industry. There are a lot of hard workers in it and they provide a lot of our wealth. They have increased exports enormously. Twenty years ago we were exporting about one per cent of our production; we are now exporting something like 63 per cent of our production. Unfortunately, the level of the Australian dollar has made that a bit tougher and, of course, we have competition from other good winemaking countries such as South Africa, which has a very low rand so it is quite competitive. I recognise that countries like Chile and Brazil make some pretty reasonable wines and they are always going to be competitive on price and quality, although I will always say that our wines are better and are certainly value for money.

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