Question Without Notice No. 501 asked in the Legislative Council on 26 June 2018 by Hon Colin De Grussa
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
LIVE EXPORT — INDUSTRY MEETING
501. Hon COLIN de GRUSSA to the Minister for Agriculture and Food:
I refer to the minister's 25 June 2018 announcement that the state government would convene a meeting of producers and industry representatives to address challenges in the live export industry.
(1) Which organisations and/or individuals have been invited to participate in the meeting, including those from state government or government agencies?
(2) Which criteria were used to guide the group's membership selection?
(3) Will the group have ongoing meetings to discuss live export issues?
(4) What are the terms of reference and reporting requirements of the group?
Hon ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for this question.
(1)–(4) I have made it clear that we met with sheep farmers in Katanning some weeks ago and at that meeting we undertook to bring a group together to go through these issues. That work was already underway when the licence of Emanuel Exports was suspended by the federal government, so that is the context for what the member describes as an announcement. It was already work that was underway.
Ten Western Australian sheep producers, the commonwealth Department of Agriculture and Water Resources and the Grower Group Alliance have been invited to a meeting at Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development offices. It will be chaired by Ralph Addis, the director general; and Bruce Mullan, the director of grains and livestock industries, and Mandy Curnow, the senior sheep development officer, will be involved. That follows the forum that we convened on 25 May in Katanning. We have looked at those who came to the Katanning meeting or who are well placed to work with the industry or government to support effective actions to ensure the future viability of the entire sheep industry.
The member asked what ongoing meetings there will be to discuss the live export issue. That will depend on the outcome of the meeting. This meeting has no limitation in the terms of reference, but from the Katanning meeting, there was a range of issues, including what might be needed if there was to be a transition out of live export. There is no doubt that less live export is going to be available with the new heat-stress models that the federal government has indicated it will put in place. We need to do work such as looking at how we modify the herd genetics so that we get sheep that can produce fine-grained wool but still have value at the end of their life. A broad range of issues will be taken into account in what we can do to maintain live export and the alternatives or other things that we need to do to increase resilience in the market.