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4.11 Australian Senate inquiry into animal welfare standards in live export markets
The Senate Rural Affairs and Transport References Committee initiated an inquiry in June 2011 that included consideration of animal welfare standards in Australia’s live
export markets, and that also included consideration of two private Senator’s bills.
The final report from this Committee was delivered in November 2011. The Senate Committee was able to consider in its inquiry the findings of the Farmer
Review and the development of the supply chain quality assurance framework which had been announced by the Government in July as a condition of resumption of any
export trade to Indonesia.
The Senate Committee report incorporated a total of nine recommendations and also included additional recommendations in two dissenting reports: two
recommendations in a dissenting report from the Australian Greens and five in a dissenting report from Senator Xenophon.
The Government’s response to all of these recommendations can be observed on the DAFF website
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. For the purposes of this review, brief comments are made on those sections of the
Senate Committee report that are considered most relevant. Some of the recommendations related to topic areas that were not directly relevant to this review
such as Mark IV restraint boxes used for cattle.
Many of the recommendations appeared to be aligned with information and issues already covered in the Farmer Review and therefore the Government response
involved reference to initiatives that had been outlined already either as part of the initiatives implemented to allow Indonesian cattle exports to resume or broader
initiatives identified in responses to the Farmer Review.
Recommendation 4 of the Senate Committee report concerned information that might be made public about compliance with supply chain assurance systems. The
Government response indicated that there was already a commitment to make independent auditor reports public.
Recommendation 5 outlined the Senate Committee’s support for a mandatory national permanent livestock traceability system and the Government indicated that it
will continue to work closely with industry in the development of a mandatory national traceability system for livestock.
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http:www.daff.gov.auanimal ‐plant‐healthwelfareexport‐tradegovernment‐response‐to‐
senate ‐inquiry‐into‐animal‐welfare‐standards‐in‐live‐export‐markets
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Recommendation 6 concerned the clarification of responsibilities of peak bodies that act and speak on behalf of the industry with a view to clarifying the lines of authority
and communication within industry. The Government response was to agree in principle and to support the notion of clarification of lines of authority and
communication within peak industry bodies.
Recommendation 7 concerned establishment of inter-governmental dialogue with the governments of each of our live export trading partners and that agreements reached
as a result of this dialogue are clearly communicated to Australian Government officials and Australian industry representatives. The Government agreed in principle
with this and referred to both the existing dialogues with trading partners and the recognition that export reforms announced in 2011 clearly stipulate that Australian
exporters have the responsibility to put in place the new arrangements. It is the exporter’s responsibility to work with industry in importing countries to develop supply
chains that meet the new standards.
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5 National livestock export performance reports
Each year Richard Norris and Greg Norman produce a summary report of livestock export performance as a separate MLALiveCorp report that details summary
statistics for livestock exported and mortality rates. The reports provide a valuable chronology of performance and include some breakdown by various characteristics.
These reports were assessed to develop summary statistics for sheep exports.
5.1 Summary of sheep numbers
Kategori