Legislation chats ongoing as sheep eID rollout progresses

All states and territories have now committed to a January 1 2025 deadline for having all newborn lambs and kids tagged before they leave their property of birth, but other dates scanning and using eID on older stock vary on a state-by-state basis.

Producers are now being targeted by multiple workshops, seminars and webinars on how to make the switch as the SAFEMEAT Advisory Group continues to finalise the new NLIS Sheep and Goat Traceability standards.

Independent traceability consultant Beth Green said the overall planning for the change was going really well as each state and territory got their programs in place but there was not yet unanimous agreement around all details in the draft standards.

"The standards are written to give the jurisdictions the opportunity to have a baseline to all generate their legislation from," she said.

"Moving towards eID from 2017, Victoria independently wrote their legislation in 2016, which is where the problem now lies.

"Victoria did a fantastic job of being the frontrunners, they did the experimenting and testing and all the field work to see what was going to work, which the rest of the country is now benefiting from.

"The friction is that some details don't directly align with how other states and industry want to run the system as a country."

Ms Green said harmonisation had been achieved on most topics, with just a few technical issues to be ironed out.

"There's not lack of harmonisation across the whole system, there are several pertinent points that are being addressed at the moment with an anticipated resolution date of July 2024," she said.

"As a country the states and territories and industries have reached majority harmonisation and you can't ignore the effort that's gone in to get to that point.

"It really is commendable how they have worked together.

"It is harmonised across the country that you must be registered to own stock and with a PIC for each property where you run stock to order your eID, and that any stock that come onto your property are recorded on the NLIS database.

"That's how the system works and that is 100 per cent uniform across the country.

"You hear there is not harmonisation but those voices are invited to stay at the table and work through it to find a solution.

"We need ongoing engagement from everyone to contribute to reaching consistency."

Ms Green said staggered dates for implementation among different states and territories would actually be beneficial in the end.

"In NSW they want their processors scanning by mid-2024 whereas other states are 2025 so that allows the installation process to spread itself out," she said.

"At this point in time there are grant schemes out there for devices and infrastructure in various forms across the states, which are very active.

"Muchea saleyard in Western Australia has their first multi-draft scanning system installed and Forbes in NSW has also had equipment installed.

"With the installation of infrastructure started and good support of device purchasing programs, we can expect progress to step up in coming months."

The Australian Meat Industry Council began urging all states to adopt eID for sheep and goats in late 2022 and is now firm that timelines must be met.

AMIC general manager for industry affairs Tim Ryan said smallstock processors across Australia have committed to meeting agreed deadlines to have necessary eID infrastructure installed.

"However, until large numbers of eID tagged sheep come through for processing, we are expecting a period of fine tuning and testing at many facilities, as we saw in the rollout in Victoria and separate trials elsewhere," he said.

"Important for investment and planning, processors need certainty from government and industry partners that the eID rollout will not be delayed."