Interview with Selina Green, ABC Country Hour

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC SOUTH AUSTRALIAN COUNTRY HOUR
THURSDAY, 26 FEBRUARY 2026

SUBJECTS: National Vineyard Register

SELINA GREEN, HOST: Earlier, I also spoke with the Federal Ag Minister, Julie Collins, and asked how this data will feed into the decisions the government makes around supporting the wine industry through its current crisis.

JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: Well, it'll give us more information about what the industry currently looks like versus what we think it looks like on the ground. So, this will be important information. And we're hoping to have the vineyard register up and running by the end of the year. And we've already provided significant support as a Federal Government, around $90 million in terms of the grape and the wine sector, and specifically, obviously, the Grape and Wine Sector Long-term Viability Support Package that recommended this National Vineyard Register would be part of the way of helping industry make better informed decisions. So, it's all part of our government working with the industry and listening to the industry.

GREEN: Why has something like this taken so long it seems to have an idea of what's planted, what varieties and where, that sort of baseline data for an industry? Why has it taken so long for something like this to be put together?

COLLINS: Well, obviously, you know, when we came to office there's been some issues in terms of the oversupply and some of the issues around the grape and wine industry. So, what we've done is we've listened carefully to industry about what does support look like and particularly worked with state governments as well. We've provided significant funding to the South Australian government, specifically given the issue in South Australia. And this was a decision by the industry that they would like this National Vineyard Register. And so Wine Australia will be the project manager and will work with the Map of Ag Australia to build this platform and it will give that better visibility, as I said, about what's on the ground for industry so that they can have improved transparency in planning. These things do take some time, but the initial build we, as I said, we expect to be complete by the end of the year. And that's actually moving quite quickly in terms of trying to get this up and running. And certainly as a Government, we have been conscious of listening to industry and working with industry as decisions are made around what is the best way to support industry.

GREEN. So, this will require industry input to get this data together. Is it voluntary? Is there any mandatory requirement for vineyards to provide this data for the registry?

COLLINS: Well, we expect, given that industry have called for it, that industry will want to put the data into the register. Certainly, you know, people have been calling for it for a few years now, as you indicated, you know in the timeframes. So, this is our government responding and acting. So, it is anticipated that industry will provide the information and the data required to make sure that this register is actually valuable to them. This is, as I said, working with and listening to them. So, we certainly expect that they will cooperate and provide the information to the register.

GREEN: That's Federal Minister for Ag, Fisheries and Forestry there, Julie Collins, speaking about the new National Vineyard Register.