Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to acknowledge the attendance recently in the electorate of Barker of the Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. I had the pleasure of hosting the minister on 18 and 19 February in Barker. On his first day I took the opportunity to introduce the minister to a number of livestock producers. We met, as you would, at a cattle exchange. We went to the Mt Gambier livestock market and we spoke to the producers there—this is timely because we are in the middle of establishing a white paper on agriculture—and following that we had dinner in Mt Gambier.

The next day we travelled to the northern parts of my electorate, to the Riverland. In the Riverland we met with Riverland wine grape growers who, having survived the drought, are suffering the ills of low commodity prices. We also took the opportunity to meet with Mr Con Poulos, from Citrus Australia SA, to talk about the plight of fruit fly in the region. I draw to the chamber's attention the fact that there have been two outbreaks of fruit fly in the Riverland. These are being addressed as significant biosecurity matters that must be addressed as they are matters of national importance. These outbreaks have a significant impact on our ability to market our fruit out of that important region to the globe.