Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-06-13 Daily Xml

Contents

Sheep and Goat Electronic Identification

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (14:38): Supplementary: how will those subsidised tags improve things for producers who have lambs going direct from property of birth to the abattoir?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:39): I thank the honourable member for her supplementary question. I do feel like we have been here before. There has been ongoing consultation across industry. We have had a steering committee that has been able to look at all of these issues and come to the recommendation, which they provided to me, that there shouldn't be an exemption for direct-to-slaughter lambs. We have the Victorian experience that we have been able to draw upon. They have already implemented eID before any of the rest of the nation. So I think there is a body of evidence and a body of opinion—very overwhelming opinion—that the system as it is being implemented is the right one.

I am aware of course that there are some producers who do not necessarily agree with that. I am aware, for example, of Mr Duan Williams in the South-East, who has been very vocal on this. I have a lot of respect for Mr Williams, as indeed I do for his father, former Liberal MP for MacKillop, and it's certainly good to hear his point of view. I met with him in Mount Gambier earlier in the year. But I am also very keen to listen to the expertise and the overwhelming recommendation that I received from the steering committee, which was to roll it out in the way that has been described.