Debate over the Ballarat saleyards took a lively twist this week with a group of disgruntled agents threatening Council with legal action and vowing not to transfer their businesses to the proposed Regional Infrastructure Pty Ltd (RIPL) managed Miners Rest facility.
The concerned agents, calling themselves the Ballarat Region Saleyards Action Group, have cited an anti-competitive ownership relationship between RIPL as the Ballarat saleyard manager and its half-share parent company and competitor agent, Landmark which places them risk of predatory pricing in the setting of fees to be charged by RIPL.
Added to these tensions, at VFF-hosted public forum on Friday – the first public meeting convened on the Ballarat saleyards relocation issue – local farmers have accused their own farmer organisation of presiding over a biased and flawed meeting which provided a platform for RIPL management to speak freely while its critics were limited to expressing views in tightly-controlled Q&A session.
Many of the views expressed in the Q&A session pointed to perceived mishandling of the whole relocation of the saleyards by Ballarat City Council. The Council they say has refused point-blank to openly disclose the dealings between itself and RIPL and the fact it sold the management rights of the $1 million a year business to RIPL for the miserly sum of one dollar.
The current Ballarat saleyards is a piece of Crown Land set-aside 130 years ago specifically for the selling livestock. The property as it stands has free title with all assets paid for by producer generated funds and which has seen the business grow to become the state’s largest multi-specie livestock marketing facility.
Farmers are rightfully annoyed that with a stroke of a pen City Hall will once again call on them to pay for a brand new $23m privately-owned facility, and leave behind, without compensation, a debit-free public asset used and paid for by previous generations.
While the presentation on the proposed new Miners Rest facility delivered by RIPL at the VFF-hosted forum was most impressive there still remains a number of concerning issues like the farmer and agent fees and charges that are to be levied, and an alleged dust and ventilation problem that has caused health problems for workers at other RIPL-designed saleyards.
On the whole however, it must be said that opposition to the actual facility design, layout and capacity appears to have subsided. This in itself must be a huge plus for the developer because it seems that after five years of bitter debate agents who are getting closer to agreeing on what’s needed to continue Ballarat’s dominance as the state’s No.1 multi-species saleyards.