Frustrated, disappointed, deceived, lied-to, empire-building and confused.
These are some of the many different words used to describe last week’s highly unexpected decision by the Andrews Government to go it alone and impose a mandatory electronic (RFID) ear-tag scheme onto the Victorian sheep meats producing industry.
Personally, I’m not totally against the idea of implementing a functional monitoring system that effectively tracks the movement of sheep, lambs and goats across Australia. But, from what we’ve been told the paper mob-based system currently in use has been proven ineffective especially in saleyard situations and particularly in the lamb re-fattening sector.
The main reason being used for the need for an electronic system is in the case of major disease outbreak or a food safety issue. These catastrophes we’ve been told would bring the total movement of livestock as well as total exports to an abrupt halt, and any delay is likely to cost the industry hundreds of millions of dollars, even billions in lost earnings.
So, will a major catastrophe ever occur? The answer authorities say is not if but when. But is the producer and down-stream industries ready and prepared to bear the cost of an electronic-based system and its establishment and ongoing maintenance? definitely not.
The frustrating and disappointing part of this whole ordeal is that the “industry” - the very people at the coalface and grassroots of the industry, sheep breeders, stock agents and importantly transport operators, who will ultimately have to implement and manage the increased workload created by new system have no idea at this point in time what the rules of the new game will be.
They don’t know if a consignment of lambs, for instance, which have been earmarked for sale in a saleyard, are to be scanned once, twice or three times on their journey to their next destination.
They don’t know who will man and operate these saleyard scanners to make the system work: a system which during peak selling periods sees multiple saleyards across the state operate 24/7 for months on end.
Agriculture Victoria, through its Agriculture Minister, has said a consultation period of one month will be conducted with industry to devise a system that is functional.
The irony of this is that talk of an electronic sheep tag system has been around for almost a decade – since Victoria went alone implementing RFID with cattle - and yet at the time of this announcement no game plan has been outlined, with the expectation it will be devised after a month of open consultation with industry.
In fact the only rules the industry knows, thus far, is there will be no exceptions. That is all lambs and goats born after Jan-01, 2017 must be tagged, and these must then be scanned from mid-2017 onwards.
Reading the fine print, no section of the industry will be exempt. The requirement says: “all those responsible for the management, husbandry and/or dispatch of sheep or goats; or all those who receive and transport sheep or goats from premises including Victorian farms, residential properties, feedlots, saleyards, holding depots, artificial breeding centres, veterinary practices, export depots, knackeries, abattoirs and agricultural show venues” must abide.
Even stock born in Victoria and transported interstate must be tagged with an electronic devise.
What’s more, this decision goes against an earlier commitment by all national industry bodies and other state and territory governments that a sole jurisdiction would not mandate an electronic scheme until a national approach was agreed on, and with industry consultation.
The total disregard for this commitment and lack of national consultation is indeed the most disappointing.