Victoria’s Agriculture minister Jaala Pulford has rejected opposition calls the government must increase financial assistance for what it claimed was the rushed and poorly-funded electronic identification (eID) sheep and goat scheme.
Northern Victoria Nationals MP Luke O’Sullivan said if Victoria’s 20,000 sheep producers were to share in the funds, they would get about $35 each, despite the equipment required for on-farm eID operation costing between $3000 and $10,000.
Producers would be left to foot the bill from 2018, when the funding offer expired.
“The 2017 eID tag subsidy and the piecemeal producer subsidy appear designed to soften the political blow rather than truly assist producers to adapt to the new policy,” Mr O’Sullivan said.
“With good lamb and wool prices, local producers are optimistic about the new opportunities eID could offer, but they have been frustrated by the lack of support.
The shift to electronic tags would cost a producer tagging 5000 lambs approximately $2000 per year, at current tag prices.
Opposition Agriculture spokesman Peter Walsh said stronger biosecurity measures gave producers peace of mind, but the government’s go-it-alone roll out was poorly funded.
But Ms Pulford said the comments indicated how little Mr Walsh really understood the government’s $17 million transition package.
“Simply dividing the total funds available by the number of producers ignores the reality of the transition package - farmers are not required to do anything other than tag sheep and goats,” Ms Pulford said.
“There are still funds available for producers.
“We have no concerns about the available funds, I have now approved three rounds of grants to producers and there is still high capacity there - we are not experiencing pressure on the size of the fund.”
Ms Pulford said Mr Walsh was showing how disconnected he was, by thinking every farmer wanted additional, optional infrastructure.
She said tags were being heavily subsidised to support farmers through the transition.
“The prosperity of Victoria’s livestock industries relies on our ability to quickly and reliably track sheep and goats in a disease or food safety emergency.
“The government is proud to lead the nation in our move towards mandatory eID because it is the move we simply had to make to protect our biosecurity system and give consumers around the globe the trust they need to be even more confident in our quality sheep and goat products.”
She said the results of Sheepcatcher II showed the government was on the right track, when it came to eIDs.
“There were small numbers in the test and it was a national study, but what it demonstrated is that if we have a very serious livestock disease problem, our capacity to get on top of it is not as good as it should be.”
