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

It is my great privilege to talk a little bit about the Wine Industry Suppliers Australia, which is present in my electorate. Obviously, the wine industry is a particularly important industry for South Australia and for my electorate, and what we often do not focus on is all of the other industries that hang off the wine industry—the suppliers and the tourism that are present because of that. WISA exists to provide benefits to its members, focusing on recognition, promotion, education and advocacy, and representing and supporting supplies that operate anywhere in the wine industry value chain.

In particular, I would like to talk about two companies: Getaways SA and Vinpac International. Getaways SA is a multi-award winning tourism business offering exceptional food, wine and accommodation in the Barossa Valley. They are winners of multiple South Australian tourism awards and they have been inducted into the South Australian Tourism Hall of Fame. They are owned and operated by Steve and Kym Brown, who started in 1995, as often these businesses do, with a single bed and breakfast. They then expanded to have their first tour vehicle, which was FX Holden—a good start to any business to begin with a Holden, and particularly one of that vintage—a great car. On 4 November 2016, Getaways SA won the South Australian tourism award for Specialised Tourism Services and, in October, they won the tourism award at the Wine Industry Impact Awards hosted by the Wine Industry Suppliers association. It is a great business in the Barossa Valley, and it is always great to see businesses which start small and grow and excel in their chosen field, as Getaways has done.

I also recognise Vinpac International, which has, of course, formed a very prominent packaging company in the Barossa Valley and formed a partnership with Blue H2O Filtration, and they saw the companies taking out the packaging award. They have collaborated on the introduction and validation of reliable and user-friendly apparatus that is semi-automated and provides more information than the traditional technology for bottling and filtration processes. All of these things—these clever and sophisticated approaches—are important for the wine industry. I have a friend who works for Vinpac and so I know they employ a great number of people in the Barossa Valley and they are an example of innovation in our economy. Congratulations to both of those suppliers. There were many more and I hope the Wine Industry Suppliers association keeps on doing a good job in my electorate.