Page 33 of 136
Part 2, Division 2, Section 2.54 Grant of permission to leave for loading 3 If an authorised officer is satisfied that:
… g each of the livestock is fit to undertake the proposed export voyage
without any significant impairment of its health …
3B For paragraph 3 g, an authorised officer may be satisfied livestock are fit to undertake a proposed export voyage without needing to be assured of
the fitness of every animal in a herd.
6 To assess whether the animals are fit to undertake a proposed export voyage without any significant impairment of their health, an authorised officer
must have regard to the following matters:
a the animals’ general condition; b the risk of them being injured by the enclosures or ramps used for
loading them onto the ship, aircraft, train or other vehicle on which they are to be carried to the place of export;
c the nature of the accommodation for them on the ship on which they are to be transported overseas;
d the numbers, species, health and general condition of any other animal to be carried on the same ship;
e the conditions that the animals are likely to encounter during the export voyage.
4.7 Independent Reference Group reviews
In July 1999, the Independent Reference Group IRG was convened by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry as a result of incidents in live cattle exports.
The IRG reported in Feb 2000 and identified concerns related to a lack of integration of activities across the whole chain, limitations in legislation and regulations between
the Commonwealth and the states, problems with third party systems and with the regulator AQIS, lack of clarity about responsibilities of government and industry in
setting and administering standards, and gaps in emergency management.
In October 2002, the Minister reconvened the IRG following further export incidents, including in particular the deaths of several hundred cattle on the MV Becrux,
attributed to heat stress.
Page 34 of 136
A working group was then formed to develop an action plan and subsequently an industry consultative committee was formed to coordinate implementation of the
action plan. There were six strategies identified, each of which was intended to be actioned through separate projects.
The major achievement of these processes as identified by the subsequent Keniry review, was the implementation of the Heat Stress model that required exporters in
southern Australia to submit consignment management plans to AQIS for approval prior to export. Exporters were required to use a computer generated heat stress
assessment model HotStuff to determine loading densities of livestock.
Other actions progressed more slowly and activities were still ongoing when the Cormo Express incident occurred and the Keniry review was initiated.
Recommendations from the IRG reviews are presented in Appendix 1 to this report.
4.8 Livestock Export Review 2003 - Keniry Review
An independent review into the livestock export industry was announced by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in October 2003 with the review team
to be led by Dr John Keniry.
The Keniry Review was tasked with examining the welfare standards applying to export, regulatory arrangements, types of livestock suitable for export, the need for
supervision of each export voyage and any specific factors associated with the Cormo Express incident.
The Keniry Review determined that continuation of the export trade was dependent on recognition by governments and industry that animal welfare concerns expressed
by the community were legitimate and needed to be addressed. The review identified five principles on which it based conclusions and recommendations.
The review also highlighted a number of concerns relating to standards and regulatory arrangements:
It outlined the need for a comprehensive national standard for health and welfare of animals during export;
recommended that government be solely responsible for granting export licences and permits and enforcing compliance against the standard, and that industry
should be responsible for QA systems to support its members in developing best practice standards;
recommended that third party veterinarians accredited veterinarians be employed by AQIS and not by industry;
Page 35 of 136
recommended that a suitably trained and qualified veterinarian should be on all export voyages that take over 10 days and some other voyages, and that these
veterinarians should report directly to AQIS as well as to industry; recognised that there are factors associated with livestock, preparation and
voyage that may make some voyages have higher risk of adverse welfare outcomes than others and that risk assessments and further research should be
used to identify these factors and either manage them or ban exports when such factors may be present;
recommended the development of agreements with importing countries to manage emergency situations such as the Cormo Express including the
development of quarantine facilities in the Middle East; development of an emergency response plan for future export incidents.
As identified in the Farmer Review, several of the recommendations from the Keniry Review were subsequently implemented, some were applied in a modified form and
some were not supported. The principles and recommendations arising from the Keniry Review are presented in Appendix 2.
The following comments summarise actions that have occurred against recommendations of the Keniry Review:
Development of the Australian Standards for the Export of Livestock ASEL which were implemented in 2005.
o consistent with Recommendation 1.
Government took over sole responsibility for granting of export licences and permits to export.
o consistent with Recommendation 2.
Legislation was introduced to support the roles and responsibilities, sanctions and training of AQIS Accredited Veterinarians AAVs. However, AAVs were not
employed by AQIS and continue to be employed by the exporters. o
partly consistent with Recommendations 3 and 4. Government developed a risk management approach where AAVs were required
to accompany consignments on all voyages to the Middle East and any other voyage that was identified as a higher risk voyage. AAVs were required to
produce daily and end-of-voyage reports, but these reports were to be provided by the AAV to the exporter and the exporter then assumed responsibility for
reporting to the Government.
o partly consistent with Recommendation 5.
Page 36 of 136
Restrictions were placed on the export of livestock from southern ports in the Australian winter.
o partly consistent with Recommendation 6.
Recommendations to establish an operational quarantine holding facility for markets in the Middle East and to develop an emergency management plan were
accepted and implemented by the Government.
4.9 Independent Review of Australia’s Livestock Export Trade
