The latest from Mr Joyce: “We will be a responsible government. We will be a government that is not guided by Four Corners but is guided by the capacity to act diligently".
It is not diligent or responsible to scrap AusAWAC or an independent animal welfare inspector. As Professor Andrew Fisher comments, the government need to try to limit the damage to the political capital of not just the live export industry, but also Australia’s livestock farming industries in general. "One day, events may arise that require significant public investment and support... It may not be a direct trade-off, but one day Australia’s farmers may need their political capital and the residual goodwill of the Australian public more than they need the live export industry."
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At a time when welfare regulations are clearly failing our animals, the Government has now scrapped the Australian Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (AusAWAC). AusAWAC represents a wide range of stakeholders with knowledge and expertise across key animal welfare issues. It advises the Minister for Agriculture and drives the implementation of the Australian Animal Welfare Strategy. This is not just about live export it is about animal welfare in Australia, important for producers, welfare advocates and of course, our animals.
So what happens now to Australian Animal Welfare Strategy? Government attitude would seem to be "Who cares?". Hot on the heels of the Middle East revelations, there is now footage of animal cruelty to Australian cattle in Mauritius. Exporter is International Live Exports. Animals Australia, the "auditor" and recorder of the cruelty.
This is not the first time Mauritius has been in the spotlight (see VALE Media release Jan 2013). VALE called for the government to halt exports to Mauritius on the basis that ESCAS unlikely to be met there. South Africa's NSPCA has also raised concerns about live export to Mauritius. And the Australian Live Exporters Council is calling for an industry-run quality assurance program in place of government regulation? In WA, the motion put to parliament by Rick Mazza, Shooters and Fishers Party member, was: 'For the govt to investigate as to whether the RSPCA is transforming from an animal welfare society to an animal rights activist group and is losing its original core values and community respect as a credible organisation.' The debate primarily focused on RSPCA's continued lobbying to stop live exports. Let us not forget that whilst no prosecutions followed, a routine live sheep export voyage to the Middle East was found to be cruel in a court of law in Western Australia and proven beyond reasonable doubt. If for no other reason than this, RSPCA must by its very name, oppose the live export trade. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCGIPpqd0vk www.banliveexport.com/documents/Al_Kuwait_Reasons2.pdf Mr Joyce told a conference of beef and sheep producers and exporters in Townsville yesterday morning that the Government will scrap an independent animal welfare supervisor position which was promised by the former government to monitor the humane treatment of live exports.
Well he would, cant have anyone official exposing repeated government failures. Much better to nip this possible transparency in the bud ASAP. So we lurch from bad to worse. An opportunity to try and improve animal welfare, to recognise problems early and intervene, and to build public confidence (surely something desirable in the industry....or can it not stand up to any scrutiny at all ) goes wasted. From Australia's first live export conference in Townsville in 2013 (on right now!) we have:
"Through ESCAS, Australian livestock are now literally shepherded by their Australian exporters through the entire export supply chain" http://livexchangeconference2013.com/ Hmmm, so much for Australian shepherds then after last night's footage from Jordan. With yet more footage of the failure that is ESCAS and the failure of the live export trade to protect the welfare of Australian animals, Mr Joyce, Minister for Agriculture, urged against an overreaction that could harm Australia's livestock industry.
"No matter how much we try we are still going to have banks being robbed by bank robbers, but we can't shut down the banking system," Mr Joyce told the ABC's News Breakfast today. Too true, but in this case “the bank” itself is the problem and the bank is culpable...perhaps akin to the bankers inviting the robbers in! One could argue that if they had a better "bank manager" it wouldn't happen. Joyce says "let's manage it not close it down". OK, so lets manage it! Place independent veterinarians on the ships, allow transparent reporting and monitoring, have government officials overseas monitoring on the ground and apply sanctions to the exporters when the breaches occur (or why have any laws there in the first place?). There is no doubt we could manage it much better….if there were any will to do so. Forty nine heifers died on a flight to Kazakhstan on 22nd/23rd Oct 2013. The cattle were all on the top tier of a two-level crate configuration. Reportedly the 747 freighter's air conditioning system malfunctioned.
However, according to Kazakh news service Tengrinews, Almaty Oblast chief veterinary inspector, Omirserik Kydyrbatev, said infringement of animal air transportation rules caused the cattle to suffocate. Given the photo published by the same news service (presumably from this shipment), one wonders whether stocking density was an issue...it is odd that only animals on one tier were affected and that a veterinary inspector reportedly commented that infringements had occurred. The paper, Heat stress: A major contributor to poor animal welfare associated with long-haul live export voyages (The Veterinary Journal, available online 21 September 2013) by Malcolm Caulfield and three other VALE members is now the 6th highest download from this journal on the Science Direct Website in the last 90 days.
The paper demonstrates that heat stress is a significant issue on many routine voyages to the Middle East and provides constructive suggestions as to how heat stress should be monitored on future voyages. With news that thousands of export sheep have managed to elude the ESCAS process in Jordan and Kuwait, it seems that Barnaby Joyce is more worried about trading than animal welfare. Not only that but clearly he is keen to wind back the rules that are proving not stringent enough to protect our animals.
Minister Joyce said "What we have to do is let the process follow its proper mechanism and make sure our reaction is tempered by the effect that we're dealing with trading partners." The minister is supportive of the live export rules introduced by the former Labor government, but says he is aiming to cut what he calls the "red and green tape for livestock exporters". |
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