ANIMAL WELFARE —
CATTLE DEATHS —NOONKANBAH STATION AND YANDEYARRA RESERVE
186. Hon JIM CHOWN to the Minister for Agriculture and Food:
(1) What has been
the cost to the public purse to date to manage and rectify the massive animal
welfare issues on Noonkanbah station and Yandeyarra reserve?
(2) When did the
management regime by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional
Development commence on Noonkanbah station and Yandeyarra reserve?
(3) When is the
DPIRD management regime expected to finish?
(4) How confident
is the minister that when the management regime finishes, the owners of
Noonkanbah station and Yandeyarra reserve will be able to competently manage
these properties to adequate animal welfare standards?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the question
and I can provide the following answers.
(1) The
Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development's costs for
the Noonkanbah response is approximately $100 000 and for Yandeyarra, $408 000.
Costs include response, aerial surveillance and humane livestock destruction,
as well as basic infrastructure upgrades to improve access for livestock water
points. The state will seek recovery for costs from both entities.
(2) The
department went in at Noonkanbah on 26 December 2018 and at Yandeyarra on 21 January
2019.
(3) The
intervention will be completed once there is confidence that new management
structures that meet animal welfare standards are in place.
(4) The member
asked my opinion about whether I was confident. We certainly do not intend to
remove supervision until we are confident that work has gone on. In terms of
Noonkanbah, there will be an expression of interest process for investors. We
are working with the group and that will be advertised by midyear. We are
looking for third parties to come in and help manage those properties. We are
looking at a similar process for Yandeyarra. At Yandeyarra we ran a short-term
process for contract mustering. We believe that mustering of those animals can
begin as early as next week.