IT'S four years since the Commonwealth Government held an inquiry following the outcry that erupted when Saudi Arabia left 50,000 of our sheep stranded on a ship claiming they were infected with scabby mouth. The report prompted by that disastrous voyage, called the Keniry Livestock Export Review, was one of several inquiries designed to improve the care of animals in Australia's lucrative livestock export industry.
If you search the copy of the Keniry review on the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry website, you will see the word "
transparent" comes up nine times. Search for "
transparency" and you'll find six more mentions, many of them among the recommendations to the then minister, Warren Truss.
The reason for transparency is that governments know people will have confidence in policies only if the process is sufficiently open to convince them they know what actually happens.Transparency in the livestock export business was seen as particularly important given the zeal with which animal welfare groups have campaigned for decades to improve standards for animals on these ships, often by exposing the worst of the mistakes.
Under an agreement the Government reached with the animal welfare groups, Parliament is informed every six months of any shipment of livestock where the death rate exceeds certain percentages, known as a reportable level.
Later, the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service posts on its website details of voyages where death rates have exceeded what are regarded as acceptable levels.
So in May, the service posted a summary of a shipment in October last year of 4657 cattle from Fremantle to Israel and Jordan. The trip lasted 26 days and 248 cattle died, well above the reportable level and enough to prompt an AQIS investigation. The summary of the investigation concluded rather blandly that "pneumonia and heat stress were the main factors" causing the deaths.
A column headed "actions" said sufficient antibiotics should be carried in the event of an outbreak of pneumonia.
But the details of how 248 cattle actually died were not included. That information was made available only after the animal welfare group Animals Australia lodged a freedom of information request in January.
AQIS originally estimated it would cost $2156 to provide the documents Animal Australia had sought, including a report of the voyage to Israel.
Six months of negotiating brought the price down and finally produced the seven-page report Animals Australia had sought from the outset. It included the crucial details the summary had left out. It said many cattle died because of "prolonged recumbency and leg infections".
"The AQIS-accredited veterinarian has stated that many of the Friesians died of septicaemia from wounds" and that 11 bulls were lame just four days into the voyage.
The wounds were apparently caused by "abrasive flooring in decks two to seven", the "relative inco-ordination [sic] of Friesians [when getting up] with abraisions" and "wet flooring".
That is clearly a dangerous combination. The report concluded: "A prolonged recumbency and relative difficulty arising on the abrasive flooring can cause skin damage which becomes infected because of the wetter than normal conditions. Once infected, the cattle spend an increased time recumbent and the cause of death is septicaemia."
What is depressing about all this is that it took six months and scores of hours of work to get hold of a report that should have been made available to the public anyway.
Even LiveCorp, the body representing live animal exporters, supports the idea of transparency and says so on its website. AQIS supports it, the Government says it supports it, but if you want to find out what goes on you still have to submit a freedom of information request to find out.
In one sense it's good that the service released the report at all. But surely it would be far better if it posted every such report on its website, especially as they are intended to prevent similar deaths in the future.
The reports are paid for by taxpayers; surely the few taxpayers who really are concerned about these issues should be able to get all the information as it becomes available without wasting their time and money enforcing their legal rights.
Matthew Moore is the Herald's FoI editor. Tell him your FoI successes and failures at
foi@smh.com.au
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