Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) widespread flooding has devastated large food growing areas in the Adelaide plains;

(b) the Adelaide plains are a major economic driver for South Australia, producing hundreds of millions of dollars of fruit and vegetables each year;

(c) the collective losses sustained by growers have run into tens of millions of dollars; and

(d) many of the producers affected by the floods are family enterprises with limited financial capacity to withstand the losses and damage; and

(2) calls on the Government to report back to the House on what assistance measures will be provided to growers seriously affected by the floods.

Last month, food growers in Adelaide's northern plains sustained tens of millions of dollars of losses as a result of flooding after days of consistently heavy rains. The Northern Adelaide Plains are where most of South Australia's vegetable growing industry is located—in the electorate of my friend the member for Wakefield. Each year, some $600 million or thereabouts of vegetables are grown by the families who run the many enterprises there. The number of direct and indirect jobs that are created runs into several thousand. It is a major economic driver for South Australia and it is a sector with very strong potential growth.

Most of the growers are experienced operators who know both their products and their markets. Today, their farms are multimillion-dollar enterprises that families have invested their lives and their savings into. They are also accustomed to the risks that arise, such as fluctuating market demand and uncertain prices; low crop yields; weather damage to crops and property; and increased cost of materials, fertilisers, electricity, transport and other production necessities. These are uncertainties and risks that the growers factor into their livelihood. They contend with them each and every year. It is a different scenario, however, when the damage and the losses caused wipe out entire crops after tens of thousands of dollars have been expended in getting the crop ready for picking. These losses are in addition to the property losses that many of them also incurred at the same time—and that is exactly what happened last month after the extensive flooding.

As family enterprises, many growers are not in a position to withstand those kinds of losses; nor are they in a position to simply shut down and walk away from their farms. Indeed, these are people that have never asked for any help in the past but now they could do with some help. I am aware that at the time of the floods, the South Australian government set up a relief centre at the Virginia Horticulture Centre and some emergency relief financial support was made available, as well as some Recovery Assistance grants of up to $10,000. I commend the South Australian government for doing that but I am also conscious that many of the families were not eligible even for those grants and that support that was made available.

Furthermore, that is not the only support that the badly affected growers need to quickly get them back on their feet. And, indeed, we need to get them quickly back on their feet because it is in everybody's interest—particularly as the region is already reeling from the impending shutdown of Holden. The horticultural sector was seen, and is still seen, as a potential growth industry and an alternative employment sector for those people that may lose their work in the car industry.

There are, however, some specific matters that I want to refer to when I talk about additional government assistance and the government intervention that is required. Firstly, there is direct assistance required by the growers either to clean up the mess or to help reinstate what they had on their properties. Only today, AUSVEG, which represents most of the growers that are in that region, sent me a letter—and I imagine my colleague the member for Wakefield might have got something similar—talking about the needs of the growers and what can be done by government to assist. I will refer to some of the matters in that letter, if time permits.

Secondly, there needs to be a very clear plan and a commitment by all three levels of government to do something about improving the local infrastructure. Engineering works that have been talked about for the last 30 or 40 years—and which have not been carried out—directly contributed to the flooding that occurred. We all know what these engineering works are: increased levy banks, perhaps increasing the height the dam and perhaps clearing out the Gawler River in the lower reaches so that water can flow through them. But we also know that it costs money. None of that work has been done in recent years and, if it were done, it would ensure that the flooding is unlikely to occur in the future.

The third area that the government could help with is to assist growers in growing their businesses. That could be done by extending the Bolivar treated water pipeline further out and providing an additional amount of water to the growers that are there. Labor had committed to doing that in the lead-up to the 2016 election and we had committed $80 million for that purpose.

Those are the kinds of measures that will make a real difference to those growers: direct assistance, fix up the flooding problems in the first place and provide the growers with an opportunity to grow the very businesses that they have invested their life savings in. That is what AUSVEG and other growers have been doing. But we saw the Prime Minister going out there last month, and my question to him is: was it simply a media opportunity or will we see real funds contributed? (Time expired)

Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member's time has expired. Is there a seconder for this motion?

Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion.

Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wakefield. Do you reserve your right to speak?

Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do.

Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion be agreed to.

Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Adelaide Plains horticultural area around Virginia is an important part of South Australia's food bowl. With many hundreds of hectares irrigated, including both open-field and greenhouse crops, the industry is a big employer in Adelaide's north and meets much of the demand for vegetables in South Australia.

The spring flooding that ravaged much of South Australia has had particularly devastating consequences for the horticultural enterprises in the region. Over 1,100 hectares were inundated with over 50 millimetres of rain in the last week of September. This flooding caused losses of between $20 to $30 million for at least 165 local businesses. The estimated loss stands at 8.9 million tonnes of various crops, including potatoes, carrots, cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli, cucumbers, capsicums and greenhouse tomatoes. Across South Australia, about 300 growers have been affected in some way, accounting for a third of our horticultural industry.

This has been a tough year for growers, businesses and families from around South Australia. For many business owners that I have spoken to, the severe weather and blackout in my home state was merely the straw that has broken the back of hardworking small- and family-business owners. While the flooding was a terrible weather event that has hurt my state's economy, we suffer a far worse scourge than that of the weather: that of our state Weatherill Labor government. Every day, small and family businesses, whether they are on the land or in suburban electorates like mine of Boothby, are lamenting the extraordinary cost of doing business in South Australia. Businesses are incredibly concerned about the price of electricity. In addition to the highest state taxes and charges in Australia, businesses are staring down the barrel of ever-increasing prices on contracts that are shorter than ever to accommodate more price hikes in the future. With the closure of the Hazelwood power station, we are set for further increases.

I would say to my Labor Party colleagues here today speaking on this motion: how do you expect businesses to bounce back from the spring floods when they are taxed and levied to the hilt, when they must pay terribly high WorkCover charges and now, above all else, they are facing incredibly huge rising costs of electricity? Furthermore, this is an electricity supply that might be turned off for hours at a time simply because the state Labor government has failed to maintain vital energy infrastructure and provide secure, reliable and affordable energy.

By contrast, a responsible government creates a good environment for businesses. The Turnbull Liberal government has set about creating an economic landscape where businesses can recover from disasters such as this because the economy is geared towards economic growth and job creation. By contrast, the federal government understood the risks going into this weather event, which is why our response included a number of measures to mitigate the effects of flooding on businesses in the northern plains area and on residents around the state.

My electorate of Boothby was also affected by flooding just prior to the event on the Adelaide plains. I am grateful to the Minister for Justice, who provided prompt financial assistance to local residents and state and local government to assist them in the clean-up through the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements. I cannot imagine the stress these residents were under when we had the Weatherill Labor government's statewide blackout. My residents were in the dark at the same time as they were anticipating another major flooding event. I pay tribute to the Mitcham council and the SES volunteers who helped prepare residents as well as they could—preparation that, thankfully, was not needed.

I also pay tribute to those who helped out in the north: personnel from the 7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, and the 1st Armoured Regiment and Air Force personnel who assisted local emergency services in the filling and distribution of sandbags, and importantly, reinforced the flood levy at Port Wakefield and Two Wells. In mentioning their efforts, I must commend the 250 ADF members and many more volunteers from the SES and CFS who worked to limit the effects of the flooding on businesses and residents in the north. Finally, I commend the Prime Minister for visiting Virginia on 4 October to witness the impact of the flooding firsthand. As all South Australians know, the Prime Minister and the Liberal government are firmly focused on doing all we can to encourage economic growth, jobs and prosperity in my home state of South Australia, which has suffered so badly under 14 long years of state Labor government mismanagement.

Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Makin for moving this motion about flooding in the Adelaide plains, because this region contributes greatly to the whole of South Australia. We just heard from the member for Boothby, who paid tribute to the ADF—Army and RAAF—personnel and CFS and SES personnel. We all thank them. But, amongst all of those thankyous to the community, there was this weird sort of partisanship injected into it. I do not want to inject partisanship into this, because the management of this river system has never been partisan. It will affect not just one government, but many governments. It will affect not just one generation of politicians, but many generations of politicians in the decision-making process. Of course, for the people along this river, whether they be in Gawler or Virginia or anywhere else, it does not matter how you vote—water does not respect how you vote, or your partisanship; it floods you regardless of that, and so you look to governments of all persuasions to do the job.

When the Howard government—and Jim Lloyd was the minister at the time—contributed $7.8 million to building the Bruce Eastick dam, a dam named after a conservative icon in Gawler, Mr Bruce Eastick, that was a good thing. When I opened that dam with Patrick Conlon and the councils involved, that was a good thing. This dam has been very useful—I went out and looked at it when the floods were on—for mitigating floods in the past. The tragedy of it is that we know that this system floods, and we know that it costs the community money.

The latest report by the Gawler River Flood Plain Management Authority, in March 2016, recounts that a once-in-a-10-year flood will cost $15 million, a once-in-a-20-year-flood will cost $24 million, a once-in-a-50-year flood will cost $102 million, a once-in-100-year flood will cost $182 million and a once-in-200-year flood will cost $212 million. The annual average damage is $7.4 million and the present value of damage is $109 million. Those costs are there for everyone to see. We know, as the member for Makin pointed out, that putting infrastructure in place can mitigate those costs. We know from this very report, which talks about channel modifications, talks about levies and maps out the costs of those things, we have a preliminary cost to fix this problem.

If we were to enlarge the Bruce Eastick North Para Flood Mitigation Dam, it would cost $40 million. The damage reduction for a 100-year flood will bring it down by $51 million so this mitigation dam could be paid for by the cost of one year's flooding in effect. We know that building strategic levies will cost $19 million but the damage reduction will be $24 million. We know both of those mitigation engineering works have cost benefit ratios of 1.25 for the strategic levies and we know the enlargement of the Bruce Eastick North Para Flood Mitigation Dam would cost $1.3 million. Both of them have good business cases and both of them would not protect all of the horticultural land but they would expect at least protect the townships of Gawler, Two Wells, Virginia and it would protect some of the horticultural land. It would go some way to providing a community response. More work needs to be done down near Virginia on channel modification and the like, and we call on the management authority to look at that seriously because it is worthy of consideration.

We have had the Prime Minister in the electorate and we have had the Leader of the Opposition in the electorate. Both of them have committed rhetorically to flood mitigation works. Rather than having a partisan debate in this chamber, as the member for Boothby wanted to do, we should be having a bipartisan debate about what we will do, what we will build. We can name the infrastructure after conservative politicians. We might name a section or a levy bank after a Labor politician. We might name it all after community members and family members who have done so much work on this flood plain. But we need to get on with building these engineering works that will prevent flooding.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to echo the sentiments of my fellow South Australian colleagues, the member for Makin and the member for Wakefield. My electorate of Mayo bore the absolute brunt of the storms that hit South Australia. The devastation was heavy and widespread right across my electorate. Our communities were beset with landslides, fallen power poles and broken powerlines. Homes and businesses were flooded, huge trees were completely uprooted, some hundreds of years old. Retaining walls collapsed, culverts failed, pedestrian bridges were swept away and a great many roads were heavily damaged by serious water erosion.

In the Adelaide Hills, a segment of Montague Road was entirely swept away with conservative estimates putting the cost of fixing just that one section of road at $1.5 million. My local councils do not have the funds, quite simply, to address the scale of the storm damage we have suffered. I continue to work hard and constructively with the federal government and with the state governments to expedite additional assistance for the most affected councils in my electorate.

Viticulturists, fruit growers and farmers have suffered very badly. Cherry growers tell me that they expect a much lower volume of fruit this year because they lost so many cherry blossoms. Cherry blossoms are necessary to grow cherries and, with the destruction of the blossoms, we have lost fruit. Planting has been delayed for other key agricultural products, such as strawberries in Myponga, McLaren Vale and Mt Compass.

We know that our state lost power during the second storm, and sizable parts of my electorate remained without power for several days afterwards. Losing power during the storm also affected our community in many very different personal ways. My office has heard stories of people becoming stuck in disability chair lifters and recliner chairs. Many rural residents that are now on the NBN spoke of not being able to use their MedicAlert devices once the power went out. In his responsibilities for the NBN, I urge Minister Fifield to consider the effect the NBN rollout is having on disabled and elderly people, particularly in regional areas, who do not have mobile phone coverage and are thus completely dependent on having a fully functional and connected landline at all times.

As is often in the case of adversity, the many storms and the weather damage that we had brought my community together. I have heard many stories of how the storms brought us together and I helped with the sandbagging in Mt Torrens. We filled hundreds of sandbags together in the rain and the mud. It was a very trying and hard day, but we worked together as a community. Once the storms had passed, neighbours checked on each other to make sure they were alright.

I must say though, that after the storms had passed, the road damage was still there. Part of the reason that our roads were so badly damaged is that South Australian roads do not get nearly enough funding compared to the rest of the country. We have 11 per cent of the nation's roads and seven per cent of the population but we still receive less than five per cent of the federal funds towards land transport infrastructure projects and, in 2014, we lost the supplementary local road funds, which made it so difficult and continues to make it so difficult in efforts for recovery.

We are now rapidly entering our bushfire season, with predictions of a very dry summer for South Australia. In my electorate, we are particularly vulnerable. We were already hit hard just a couple of years ago in the Sampson Flat bushfires, and everybody remembers South Australia's Ash Wednesday.

I again urge the government to review their funding model for South Australia's roads, and I request that they reinstate supplementary road funding to make it fairer for South Australia. We need to have access for our roads. I am not being melodramatic when I say that many lives hang in the balance from the government's decision.

In closing, Mayo and South Australia have been hit hard by the recent floods and storms. We have lost produce, crops have been damaged, roads have been washed away and magnificent trees have been uprooted. We will endure, as we always have in times of adversity; however, I implore the government to do all it can to support my region and our state to heal from these recent emergencies and trying times.

Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers on this motion, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.