LiveCorp say it would struggle to survive if sheep phased out

In April, LiveCorp chairman Troy Setter advised the government the RDC's "liquidity would be severely compromised" and he was "worried about our ongoing ability".

LiveCorp made the admission in a Senate estimates hearing, under the questioning of Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie, who asked if the phase out of sheep would impact the organisation's balance sheet.

"We're not sure where we'll go from here if the sheep trade shuts given the cost to run the organisation and it's a reasonable amount of our income," Mr Setter said.

"We've done a lot of economic analysis and work on it internally about that with the declining numbers.

"We've lived on reserves the last couple of years because of the drought impact, so with the loss of income from sheep we will struggle to deliver our services and meet our requirements."

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In the past financial year, sheep levies made up 11 per cent ($302,000) of LiveCorp's levy income ($2.74m). LiveCorp's contribution from the Meat & Livestock Australia and the federal government would also be affected, but the RDC could not put a dollar value on the flow-on impact.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt told a Senate estimates committee he wasn't aware of the financial implications of the government's phase out policy for LiveCorp.

Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry officials were grilled by the Nationals about why the minister was left in the dark. DAFF secretary Andrew Metcalfe said he was made aware of the issue but he "did not run out of a meeting and tell the minister".

"I have a very busy job, I hear a great many things about a great many issues - I would spend my entire day about the things I just heard," Mr Metcalfe said.

"I am confident that information would have come to the minister at the appropriate time."

Nationals Senator Matt Canavan said it was a "pretty serious piece of information" to withhold from the minister.

"I struggle to believe that you would receive such consequential information so often, I doubt you've been warned many times in your career an RDC has threats to its ongoing viability," Senator Canavan said.

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Senator McKenzie questioned if the government's decision would have been different had known the "impact going to be significant and potentially fatal" to LiveCorp.

However, Senator Watt said Labor took a clear commitment to end the live sheep trade to two elections and intended to fulfil it.

"This is the entire point of the consultation process," Senator Watt said.

"We formed this panel to identify the range of impact that there will be - and we have acknowledged there will be impacts on people and organisations."

Mr Metcalfe is not aware of the phase out creating risks to other RDCs or publicly-funded organisations.

"But those issues if they exist will come out through this process we're now in," Mr Metcalfe said.

"It's very timely that LiveCorp has indicated this, so the system is working perfectly from a public administration point of view."