June 29, 2011

Push on to boost chilled meat exports from Australia

Melissa Parke, a Member of Parliament with the Australian Labour Party and an animal welfare advocate, has called on the Australian government to eliminate subsidies and tariffs in other countries to help the Australian chilled meat export trade expand.

"There are things the Commonwealth government can do in terms of advocating for the elimination of subsidies and tariffs that importing countries are putting on chilled meat imports, which would level the playing field in so far as the live export and chilled meat export trades go," Parke said.

"The government is not talking about ending live export trade at this stage, but I don't see what would be the problem in advocating expanded domestic processing for the chilled-meat export trade."

The Western Australia branch of the Australian Labour Party said that there were "strong economic, job, and animal welfare reasons for transitioning from the live export trade to domestic processing of animals for local consumption and the chilled and frozen meat trade".

The party agreed to pursue the elimination of foreign subsidies and tariffs, which distorted competitive neutrality between the meat processing and the live export industries.

It also recognised the need to ensure adequate transitional arrangements are in place to facilitate the expansion of a chilled and frozen meat trade and develop an alternative economic base for the pastoral industry in northern Western Australia.

The executive director of agribusiness Elders, Malcolm Jackman, said the company was becomingly "increasingly frustrated by the lack of progress to date" on resuming live exports.

He said people in the industry, who were committed to having Australian standards in Indonesian abattoirs, wanted to see some action rather than ongoing negotiations with serious concern over the level of co-operation from Indonesian authorities who had barred Australian officials from inspecting abattoirs.

"There needs to be a circuit-breaker; otherwise this could on go on for a long time," he said.