WoolProducers withdraw support for sheep EID rollout

WoolProducers Australia has withdrawn its support for the mandatory electronic identification (EID) of sheep, citing ongoing concerns with the rollout, which it was not prepared to leave unchecked. 

APlus News understands that the rollout has been hamstrung by a failure of state governments to agree on harmonised national solutions. 

WoolProducers Australia Chief Executive Officer, Jo Hall, said its support for mandatory EID was based on a number of contingencies to ensure that the system and shared responsibilities were fair and equitable for woolgrowers and that the required biosecurity outcomes were met, which was currently not the case. 

Ms Hall said each state and territory had its own legislation to introduce EIDs, which had to be considered in any rollout, however they had not all committed to the same minimum standards. 

“We are talking about a national system. If states can’t commit to a bare basic system, we can’t see that the added cost to growers for no net gain in biosecurity systems is justified,” she said. 

An example concern was the tagging of older stock or discussing whether or not to remove visual tags before application of EIDs. 

“Australia trades as a nation, and as such we must have a nationally consistent traceability system that delivers harmonised biosecurity outcomes across all states and territories. There is no point placing an increased financial burden on woolgrowers if there is not enhanced biosecurity outcomes by continuing to have a piecemeal approach to sheep traceability,” Ms Hall said. 

“We’ve been really clear through the process about what our expectations were and the caveats our support were contingent on, we have worked in good faith to make sure woolgrowers get the best outcomes. 

“There’s been a number of things that don’t seem to be listened to, so we’re making the call to withdraw our support.” 

Late last week The WoolProducers’ board resolved the following: 

“In the interests of woolgrowers and national biosecurity outcomes, along with the importance of the three caveats that WoolProducers hold in relation to our policy support of the mandatory roll out of electronic identification for sheep, which are: 

“The establishment of a nationally harmonised traceability system that operates according to nationally consistent business rules.

“Investment into a database capable of handling all farmed FMD susceptible livestock species. 

“The creation of an equitable funding arrangement for both the establishment and ongoing maintenance of an enhanced system. 

“WoolProducers withdraws our support of the continued roll-out, as currently two of these caveats are not being met resulting in no net gain in biosecurity outcomes at a national level.

"If WoolProducers are satisfied that these caveats are addressed, we will recommit to supporting the national roll-out.” 

WoolProducers also do not believe that adequate government funding from both the Commonwealth and state governments has been committed. 

Ms Hall said funding for the EID rollout should be tripartite – shared between industry as well as state and Commonwealth governments. 

“The costings for the roll-out of this system has been independently estimated to be $830 million over 10 years,” Ms Hall said. 

“While the funding commitment that has been received to date from state and federal governments is welcomed, it is still a long way short of the required financial assistance.”