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A LACK of advocacy for agricultural industry groups was part of the reason for reduced investment in primary industries and regions, according to treasurer Tom Koutsantonis.
Mr Koutsantonis defended the $100 million spending decrease in the recent state budget, saying he would be happy to listen to regional industries if they told him where to invest.
“If regional industries want to come see me and ask me for assistance, I’m happy to listen to them,” he said.
“But they don’t.”
“The worst thing I can do is tell one of the oldest and most successful industries what’s good for them.”
Mr Koutsantonis said agricultural industry groups advocated well at a national level, but not so well at a state level.
He said he would like to see more advocacy and thought industry groups should “be a lot more organised”.
“I say this without… it’s not a criticism, it’s just an observation,” he said.
“I need agriculture to come to me, through their agency and advocate what they think will benefit them.
![BUDGET BLUES: Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis says there should be more advocacy from agricultural industry groups. BUDGET BLUES: Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis says there should be more advocacy from agricultural industry groups.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/quinton.mccallum/d286214b-aa3b-4aed-8756-706055ab1ccc.JPG/r1018_0_4073_2760_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
“I’m very keen on the Northern Irrigation Plan, I’m very keen to see what I can do to improve exports and path to market. I invested $20m in fixing last mile issues, mainly for the ag sector.
“I’ve cut almost all their taxes – they pay very few taxes to the state government, they pay most of their taxes to the Commonwealth government; the Commonwealth government are the ones who generally have the larger cheque books to invest in these type of industries.”
Primary Producers SA chairman Rob Kerin said there was adequate advocacy from agricultural industry groups, pointing to the 2015 mid-year government funds, to address first and last mile transport access issues, as a positive result of strong ag advocacy.
Mr Kerin said PPSA were grateful for their “unprecedented access” to government departments.
“We have very regular meetings with PIRSA and also the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, the Native Vegetation Council and Safework SA,” he said.
“That’s a different way of operating than putting out press releases, but it’s a lot more effective.”
While Mr Kerin described the budget as “steady” for PIRSA, he was disappointed in a lack of funding for the South East drainage system and the Australian Plant Functional Genomics Centre, and “no relief” for landholders subject to NRM levies.
“Irrigators are looking at enormous hikes in electricity prices and low allocations – it’s not a good time to be hitting them with extra charges,” he said.
Mr Kerin said he expected the government’s third and fourth-year forward estimates to grow when more federal-funded programs were announced.
He said the $109m jobs package was a budget positive.
“There will be some primary producers who benefit from that,” he said.
Opposition finance spokesperson Rob Lucas was critical of the budget, describing cuts to primary industry funding as “extraordinary”.
Mr Lucas said the opposition would seek detail on the impact to programs and services during the upcoming estimates committees process.
“David (Ridgway) and his team will be asking questions of Bignell and co. as to how on earth they justify it,” he said.
“It’s surprising, because not only is it one of the biggest industries, but of course Mr Weatherill, Mr Koutsantonis and Mr Bignell trumpet themselves when they do their country cabinets about how they recognise the importance of agriculture and the regions.”
“But the proof of the pudding is in the eating and when the budget comes down, when you see such a massive cut in funding going into primary industry, then clearly something’s up and we need to see detail.”
Mr Koutsantonis said he didn’t expect the spending drop to affect any regional research centres.
“Not that I know of. These are programs coming to an end, not cuts,” he said.