HEMP INDUSTRY — SPECIALIST DEVELOPMENT UNIT
553. Hon Dr BRIAN WALKER to the Minister for Agriculture and
Food:
I
refer the minister to Shannon Verhagen's article in the Albany
Advertiser on Thursday, 12 August entitled ''High hopes
hanging on big shipment of hemp seed''.
(1) Does the McGowan government agree with the
sentiments of Gail Stubber, executive officer of HempGro, outlining in
that article the need for a specialist unit which can process hurd—the
lightweight, durable fibre found at the core of the hemp plant—into
various products, including animal bedding, weed matting and housing, to the
potential benefit of the south west's economy?
(2) If an
application is submitted for the next round of regional economic development
grants to fund the development and
deployment of such a resource, will the minister give it her due consideration
and support?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the
member for the question.
(1)–(2) I
guess it is probably in the form of a Dorothy Dixer because I am sure the
member knows this government is strongly supporting development of the Western Australian
hemp industry. In fact, the first piece of legislation
I put through this Parliament was to increase permissible THC—tetrahydrocannabinol—content,
making the industry much more viable.
The
Margaret River Hemp Processing facility was only made possible with support
from our government's value add agribusiness investment
attraction fund and industrial hemp grant scheme. This facility is the first of
its kind in Western Australia, and is now processing Western Australian–grown
hemp into hurd, fibre and fines for the building and textile industries. We
recently visited that site and saw all the potential uses available. I also
note that the McGowan government has provided to HempGro, through the Collie
small grants program, funds for a hemp processing business development plan, as
well as a $2 million grant for Cannaponics medicinal cannabis facility.
We
have already seen regional economic development grants provided to the hemp
industry—for example, $50 000 to Vasse Valley for value-added
hemp food production. As members heard this morning, RED grants are enabling
brilliant things around the state. It is a competitive process. We urge our
friends in the hemp industry to continue to use the RED grants and all the
other programs that so far have been important to them moving forward.