Food and Fibre Great South Coast
Jacinta ERMACORA (Western Victoria) (09:56): Food and Fibre Great South Coast hosted a sustainable water forum in Warrnambool on Wednesday 15 February, where I was honoured to represent Minister Shing. Attendees included farmers, local government, Southern Rural Water, the Victorian Farmers Federation, Wannon Water and government representatives. We heard how the government is working with farmers and businesses to overcome barriers to growing their production through accessing more water. The can-do attitude displayed by Wayne and Tracey Schild of Grange Garlic in Penshurst in solving their water access problems and dairy farmer Basil Ryan is commendable. We also heard from the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action on the work that they are doing in response to Food and Fibre Great South Coast’s 18-point plan for water policy reform in Victoria. I congratulate the regional community and Food and Fibre Great South Coast. This is important work because chair Georgina Gubbins recently noted that the Great South Coast is now Australia’s top agricultural region, with the ABS reporting that the region produced $4.6 billion worth of food and fibre output in the year 2021. I thank Food and Fibre Great South Coast for their leadership.