SAFEMEAT says sheep eID standards need more work before sign off

The advisory group considered a paper seeking endorsement to progress the current draft NLIS Standards and Guidelines for Sheep and Goats ahead of the mandatory eID rollout but have said there are a "small number of outstanding matters" to resolve before they can give their approval.

National harmonisation will be a key focus of discussions, with concerns previously raised by industry stakeholders about differences in implementation state by state.

The advisory group has now begun plan to finalise the draft standards, with plans to make the final endorsement in July at the SAFEMEAT Partners meeting.

The process will be led by an independent facilitator and will engage relevant SAFEMEAT stakeholders.

SAFEMEAT Partners chair John Webster said solid progress had already been made at a meeting earlier this week and he was confident the last few areas would be finalised by the next advisory group meeting in May.

"People walked into the meeting with a really strong willingness to reach a nationally harmonised approach, which implies a little give and take in all directions, but making sure that whatever comes out is going to meet the needs that we must have for product integrity," he said.

"Given that all the state ministers agreed that this was going to happen in 2025, the clock is ticking on these things.

"That announcement was made in September 2022 so there's been a lot of work done.

"We're just down to those last couple of things that need to be ironed out."

It comes after WoolProducers withdrew its support from the mandatory roll-out in late January and refused to endorse the draft standards

WoolProducers CEO Jo Hall said the decision by the advisory group vindicates WoolProducers' position regarding their concerns over the eID approach.

"WoolProducers made the decision to withdraw support to highlight the fact that the opportunity to deliver a robust national traceability system was being wasted, and if the process was not going to result in truly national harmonisation it was going to come at a significant cost to producers with no net gains in national biosecurity outcomes," she said.

"The board of WoolProducers could not, in good faith, continue to support the process as it stood.

"While WoolProducers welcomes the advisory group decision and the agreement of a clear path forward, we will not be pressured into agreeing to anything for the sake of meeting a deadline, we have seen far too often poor policy decisions being made to accommodate external timeframes".

Ms Hall said delivering a national traceability system "must be done properly and not just to suit an arbitrary date".

"If this process delivers on its aim of unanimous agreement from relevant stakeholders to achieve nationally consistent minimum traceability standards, WoolProducers will be one step closer to recommitting to supporting the roll-out of EIDs, however it is too early to commit to anything yet," she said.

"While it was surprising that there were still some organisations who were willing to endorse the draft standards, even in the absence of national harmonisation, WoolProducers are very pleased that the majority of advisory group members were willing to work towards a beneficial outcome."