Consultative Process

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The decisions

Who are the decision makers?

What was consulted on?

Who is the consultation for?

How was my submission processed?

The decisions

The Australian Government needs to make decisions regarding the standards and guidelines and wishes to engage stakeholders and interested public.  These decisions are:

  1. How best to develop the Land Transport Standards so they will minimise the risk to the welfare of the livestock being transported. The particular areas of focus are:
    • responsibilities and planning of livestock transport;
    • stock handling competency;
    • transport vehicles and facilities;
    • pretransport selection of livestock;
    • loading, transport and unloading of livestock; and
    • humane destruction.
  2. How to adequately demonstrate the need for the proposed Land Transport Standards and its associated costs and benefits - this is done by preparing a Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) March 2008 (1,984 KB) .

Please note: The Australian Government was not seeking public views on the live export of livestock in this consultation process as it is covered by a separate animal welfare standard. Click here to visit the website for live export.

The decision makers

Those who are responsible for facilitating the review, design and preparation of the Land Transport Standards (including the RIS) are:

These bodies are being assisted by the Land Transport Standards Reference Group (SRG) and will use input from the consultation process to adjust the standard, if required, and recommend adoption. The decision to authorise the Standards and the RIS will eventually fall to:

What was consulted on?

The Australian Government (through DAFF and AHA) has undertaken a review of Australia's Animal Welfare Codes of Practice and determined that those codes should be converted into Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines. Work proceeded to determine the basic scale and scope of the Land Transport Standards and to identify the costs and benefits of the Land Transport Standards. DAFF and AHA sought views from interested parties about how well:

DAFF and AHA thank you for your comments on those two main points. This consultation process was not seeking views on the live export of livestock.

Who is this consultation for?

The public consultation builds on consultative processes involving key stakeholders in drafting the Land Transport Standards, which commenced in November 2006. The process has included a range of formal and informal activities, including formation and operation of the Land Transport Standards Reference Group (SRG), which liaises with the Animal Welfare Working Group (AWWG). The SRG is comprised of key stakeholders who have formal responsibility for livestock transport and/or who would be most directly affected by the Land Transport Standards (representing the cattle, sheep/wool, pig, poultry, horse, goat, emu/ostrich industries, livestock transporters, saleyards, lot feeders, veterinarians, animal welfare organisations, and government agencies). Representatives from these stakeholder groups have met several times in assisting with drafting the Land Transport Standards.

At the 6th meeting of the SRG, final preparations were made for releasing the Draft Land Transport Standards. While a number of outstanding issues were identified and for which full consensus could not be reached, the SRG agreed that the Draft Standards would proceed to public consultation. The outstanding issues will be of particular interest to the SRG, AHA, and DAFF when making final revisions to the document after the public consultation process. These issues are included in  Appendix 8 (169 KB) in the Abridged Public Consultation Version of the Regulation Impact Statement - March 2008 (512 KB) .

The public consultation phase sought views from a range of people interested in the land transport of livestock, including those people directly or indirectly affected by the implementation of the Land Transport Standards and/or who had not yet had the opportunity to comment on the Land Transport Standards or the RIS.  The public consultation is complete, there were further meetings of the SRG and the AWWG, where submissions from this consultation process were considered.

How was my submission processed?

  1. All submissions (in survey and written form) were considered public documents.

Once the public consultation closed, all comments (in survey form or full written submissions) were considered carefully by Animal Health Australia (AHA) and the Standards Reference Group (SRG). Considering the consultation responses (surveys and written submissions), AHA and the SRG were particularly interested in how satisfied stakeholders and the public were that the Draft Land Transport Standards adequately specify requirements for the safe transport of livestock on land and that the RIS adequately identified the costs and benefits of the Land Transport Standards and demonstrated the need for the Standards.

Assessment of feedback from the consultation process gave consideration to:

  • the extent to which suggestions strengthen the intent and objectives of the Standards;
  • the volume and variety of responses making similar suggestions (ie, not just a form letter based on a campaign);
  • anticipated adverse impacts from submitted suggestions; and
  • the viability of implementing any suggested change.

The Land Transport Standards Reference Group (SRG) then recommended particular changes to the Land Transport Standards and/or the RIS to the Animal Welfare Working Group (AWWG).  In turn, the AWWG then passed on its recommendations to those Ministerial Committees responsible for approving animal welfare regulations.

Flow chart detailing the decision-making process (28 KB)

summary of the consultation response results (323 KB)