PRIMARY INDUSTRIES AND
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT — VETERINARY OFFICERS
584. Hon COLIN de GRUSSA to the Minister for Agriculture and
Food:
I refer to the current
foot-and-mouth disease, FMD, and lumpy skin disease, LSD, outbreaks in
Indonesia and the threat that an outbreak poses to Western Australia's
agricultural sector.
(1) How many
qualified veterinary officers are currently employed by the Department of
Primary Industries and Regional Development, and where are they located?
(2) Are all
veterinary officer positions currently filled; and, if not, what steps is the
government taking to fill these positions, and why have they remained vacant?
(3) In the
context of a disease outbreak such as FMD or LSD, can the minister please
outline how DPIRD provides adequate veterinary officer capability in areas
where there is no locally based DPIRD veterinary officer?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the question
and I agree absolutely that both foot-and-mouth disease and lumpy skin disease
have the potential to be devastating to our export-oriented livestock industry.
I can assure all parties that since the increased risk occurred with the move
of FMD and LSD into Indonesia around May this year, we have been very focused
on dealing with it.
(1) At the
moment, there are 53 qualified veterinary positions in the DPIRD biosecurity
team; 43 of these are in animal biosecurity
policy and operations and are located in Perth. Regionally, there are positions
in Bunbury, Albany, Broome, Northam, Kununurra, Geraldton, Moora,
Katanning and Narrogin. DPIRD diagnostic laboratory services has 10 qualified
diagnostic veterinarians; eight are located in Perth and two in Albany.
(2) Currently,
five policy and four field veterinary positions are vacant. It is well recognised
that there is a national shortage of
veterinarians. DPIRD has and continues to undertake extensive recruitment
activities to fill vacant positions.
(3) The Department of Primary Industries and Regional
Development works closely with the private veterinary sector to build partnerships, increase awareness
of reportable animal diseases and build capacity regionally. This
includes subsidising significant disease investigations to enhance early
detection and awareness for emergency animal diseases. Private veterinarians
regularly investigate disease reports in the regions in collaboration with DPIRD diagnostic and field veterinary staff. Special
vet foot-and-mouth disease forums have been taking place across the
state. In a biosecurity response, DPIRD can engage private veterinarians across Australia to work in the response and has
made contingency plans in this regard. This may include activation of
the commonwealth's international resource arrangements for specialist
staff from other countries.