Minister for Primary Industries and Water Jo Palmer, RCPCA's Jan Davis and TFGA director Ian Sauer express their concerns about recent leaked video footage from a Tasmanian abattoir. Video by Craig George
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00 So this today is an opportunity for the government to respond to the horrendous footage that
00:07 we saw over the past 10 days across livestock processing facilities in Tasmania.
00:18 I think everyone is on the same page when we say that footage was really disturbing.
00:23 It has really upset our community.
00:26 It has particularly upset our farmers.
00:28 It has put into jeopardy the jobs of hundreds of Tasmanians right before Christmas.
00:33 And it is also completely unacceptable to our government that we have processing facilities
00:39 that have had these individuals who have behaved so abhorrently.
00:44 So as a government, we have very quickly and urgently stood up an investigative team.
00:51 That was the first action that we took to actually go out, do the interviews, go through
00:56 this footage frame by frame against our Animal Welfare Act and also against our Private Produce
01:03 Safety Act.
01:04 And that team is on the ground now and they have been for the past week.
01:08 The other thing that I will be announcing today is that immediately I have pulled together
01:13 a task force.
01:14 This task force will be made up of different peat body and industry groups.
01:19 In particular, we will have TAS Farmers, formerly TFGA, the RSPCA, industry will be involved
01:27 and other peat bodies.
01:29 That task force is going to be given the job of looking at three particular areas.
01:35 First and foremost, do we need to have, and if we do, what will the framework be around
01:41 new animal welfare standards, the livestock processing facilities.
01:46 The second part of that is going to be, is there a problem with the culture across this
01:52 industry?
01:53 Because we have seen in the past years increases when it comes to penalties.
01:58 We have seen on the spot audit checks.
02:01 Our work has been done in this space and yet here we are with another example of animal
02:07 cruelty in these abattoirs.
02:09 So we really need to look at what is the culture, what can we do with trains, what can we do
02:14 to ensure that people working in this space are adequately trained and have a really good
02:19 culture about what they are doing.
02:21 The reality is, this is an abattoir.
02:24 The slaughter of animals is what this industry is about.
02:28 But it should be done in a humane way and it should be done in a respectful way.
02:33 And that is my expectation as a minister and that is the expectation of this government.
02:38 And what we have seen because of the bad behaviour of some people is it has put into jeopardy
02:44 this industry where there are hundreds of people doing a great job, who are working
02:49 really hard, who do do this the right way.
02:52 And it has tarnished their reputation as well.
02:55 It has also tarnished the reputation of Brand Tasmania.
02:58 We want the whole world to know that the product that they are getting from our state, it has
03:04 been treated humanely and it has been adhering to the highest standards of animal welfare
03:09 and we cannot accept anything less than that.
03:12 CCTV cameras in their abattoir, there is no legal requirement for them to do that.
03:18 So they have taken a step above and beyond.
03:20 But if nobody is watching the footage, what is the point?
03:24 Do you believe there is a systemic issue within the abattoirs in Tassie and do you think,
03:28 as you said, seven years ago, five years ago, that this task force will even do anything
03:32 and we could perhaps be here again in five years?
03:35 I can assure you that myself and I know Ian well, we will not be sitting in a room where
03:40 it is all talk.
03:42 We will be making sure there is action on the ground, whatever that needs to be.
03:46 And I think that the object of the Minister's focus on culture is a really important one
03:52 because that is a really hard thing to see from outside and a really hard thing to benchmark
03:57 and set standards for.
03:59 yes, that has to be part of an overall development.