Page 6 - Australian Pork Newspaper

As the 2019 Federal election dust settles...
by DEB KERR General Manager Policy
Figure 1
IT was the election that was not winnable and yet in one of the biggest election surprises of re- cent times, the Coalition was returned to Govern- ment with a tiny one seat majority in the House of Representatives and a two-party preferred swing of +1.17 percent.
Forty senators had to contest their spot, out of 76 seats.
The structure of the new Senate is Coalition with 35 Senators, Labor 26, Greens nine, One Nation two, Centre Alliance two, Cory Bernardi and Jacqui Lambie.
While the Coalition has strengthened its position in the Senate compared to the previous parliament, it will require the support of at least three cross-bench- ers to pass legislation.
The election also pro- vided an opportunity for a re-shuffle of Ministerial portfolios.
The major change for pork industry was the ap- pointment of Bridget Mc- Kenzie as the Minister for Agriculture.
The Minister is already engaging with her key stakeholders, holding 30-minute ‘speed dating’ meetings in Canberra re- cently, and is now out on the ground meeting pro- ducers and other agricul- ture organisations.
Both Houses of Parlia- ment will commence sit- ting in the first week of July, providing the first opportunity for the Coali- tion to get back to ‘busi- ness as usual’.
In terms of what this means, the Government has indicated its first busi- ness is to implement its income tax cut package announced in the May budget, first home buy- ers’ deposit scheme, infra- structure and skills pack- age policies.
For the pork industry, the key policy issues are:
• Trade: China market
Point of View
access for pork and pork products, anti-dumping regime changes and the EU free-trade agreement.
• Labour: the inclusion of ‘pig farmer’ under the Pork Industry Labour Agreement. However, the current tightened system for skilled migration is likely to continue.
• Animal activists: the Government announced new offences regarding the use of carriage ser- vices to disclose personal information, and that the Government would sup- port farmers seeking to bring civil action.
• Border biosecurity: the changes implemented recently have been wel- come, but APL supports a permanent testing re- gime for surrendered and seized products, higher infringements and depor- tation on the first offence.
• Animal welfare: a re- view is under way focus- ing on the way in which animal welfare standards are undertaken (this will not affect the review of the Pig Standards).
• Disease preparedness: measures to improve our ability to respond and stamp out an African swine fever (or other ex- otic diseases) incursion across governments and industry.
• Traceability: a number of government projects are under way to iden- tify ways to improve Aus- tralia’s unique livestock traceability system in- cluding through the adop- tion of innovations.
• Country of Origin La- belling: while the Gov- ernment has deferred any implementation concerns to the 2020 statutory re- view, APL has called on the Government to imple- ment stronger education measures.
• Research & Develop- ment Corporations: the Government response to the Rural Innovation Re- port undertaken by Ernst and Young will be a key measure in the next steps.
While the above does not include every policy concern of producers, it does focus on those that are the responsibility of the Federal Government and is reflective of the issues identified in No- vember 2017 and Novem- ber 2018 by delegates (see industry heat map policy priorities in Figure 1).
Feel free to drop the team an email at policy@ australianpork.com.au if you have a policy issue you wish to raise with APL – otherwise pick up the phone and call me on 0408 169 628.
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Reports show swine fever toll in China may far exceed recorded 137 outbreaks
AS many as half of China’s breeding pigs have either died from African swine fever or been slaughtered because of the spread- ing disease.
This means the actu- al death toll for swine fever in China may be twice as high as is being officially recog- nised by the Chinese Government.
Cracks are already beginning to show as food prices rise and the volumes of import- ed pork increase each week.
China’s rural econo- my is suffering greatly, with 40 million pig farmers making up that demographic.
Losses are being re- corded across the pig industry by vaccine producers, feed addi- tive producers and ge-
netics companies alike. Losses are not only from infected pigs dy- ing or being culled, but in many cases farm- ers are sending pigs to market early to avoid contracting the disease when it has been con-
firmed nearby.
This action has kept
pork prices down in previous months but prices are now show- ing a dramatic rise and China’s agricultural ministry believes they could increase by 70 percent throughout 2019.
It is believed many outbreaks are still go- ing unreported.
Due to China’s ‘vast and fragmented’ agri- cultural sector, it may be poor data quality making it impossible to gauge the full extent of the disease.
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Page 6 – Australian Pork Newspaper, July 2019
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