Committed to saleyards funding

The Member for Barker Tony Pasin has confirmed the Federal Coalition are committing to putting their money where their mouth is – pledging to support the Mount Gambier and Districts Saleyards Transformation Project with a funding commitment of $7,500,000 when they return to government.

The 50 year-old community owned facility is in need of a $15 million upgrade to bring it up to modern standards to meet expectations for animal welfare and work, health and safety obligations.

The transformation project includes a cattle yard roof, soft flooring, solar lighting system, pen realignment and new cattle crush, rainwater harvesting and security measures.

Mr Pasin said that these planned once-in-a-generation infrastructure upgrades were essential for the long-term sustainability of the facility, the importance of which had been shamefully disregarded by the current Federal Government who rejected a bid for funding made by the District Council of Grant last year.

“Every person living in and around Mount Gambier benefits from a successful day at the saleyards in one form or another,” Mr Pasin said. “Whether you’re directly employed in agriculture or not, when you live in a region like the Limestone Coast, infrastructure that supports our farmers to do business supports the entire community.

“The Coalition is supporting this project because we want to see our farmers and our rural communities not only succeed but thrive as we aim towards $100 billion in farmgate output by 2030.

“For this to happen, we need to lean in and back our Aussie farmers, not disregard the epic contribution they make to local communities, our national economy and the global food task.

“Under Labor we’ve seen a definitive policy shift away from agriculture to the detriment of our regional communities and against the national interest.

“In contrast, an elected Coalition Government will support our farmers by backing our local saleyards.”