Sheep and Goat Electronic Identification

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (14:41): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development regarding additional charges on producers for tag reading of sheep and goat eID.

Leave granted.

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI: It has been brought to the opposition's attention, and it is our understanding the minister's attention also, that South Australian producers are being charged 30¢ per sheep to scan eID eartags at the Hamilton saleyards in Victoria, where sheep and goat eID has been mandatory since 2017. When a producer questioned the livestock firm employed to facilitate his sale he was informed that the Victorian Hamilton facility use subcontractors to take all sheep unloaded from the trucks through the tag-reading equipment for individual identification. The producer was told that those contractors currently charge the selling centre 90¢ per head for this task, and at this stage the centre is absorbing 60¢ of this and charging the vendor the remaining 30¢. My questions to the minister are:

1. Were droving and scanning fees considered in the business case put forward by the steering committee? If not, why not?

2. Given it was the minister's decision, in conjunction with her state and federal colleagues, to mandate sheep and goat eID in this state, will she rule out further costs for sheep producers and saleyard operators in South Australia in the form of droving and scanning fees?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:42): I thank the honourable member for her question. To my knowledge, this hasn't been brought to my attention. Perhaps there is correspondence that has been sent to me but, if so, no briefing or file has come across my desk at this stage. I would perhaps point out that some of the concerns in the South-East's saleyards have been about producers sending their animals interstate, particularly to Victoria, so perhaps if these sorts of things are occurring that might disincentivise them to do that. That is in terms of what the Victorians apparently, according to this question, are charging. In terms of what a Victorian saleyard is doing, that is obviously not something that is within the scope of the state government's decision-making.