Committees

Chair - Mr Chris Patmore

Vice Chair - Ms Bindi Murray
Policy Officer - Mr Ian Randles

The PGA represents a significant majority of the pastoral sheep and cattle in Western Australia, as well as many of the State's larger livestock producers in the agricultural areas.

SUPPORT FOR DEREGULATION

The PGA was the only organisation to lobby strongly for the removal of compulsory acquisition on the State's lamb industry.  It successfully achieved deregulation of the domestic market on July 1st 1994.  Since that time the domestic lamb industry experienced a re-invigoration.

By 1998, the number of lambs dealt with by the domestic market, rivalled the operations of WAMMCO International, the statutory marketer.  PGA continued to lobby for total deregulation of the lamb market, finally achieving this aim on January 1st 2000.

The former statutory authority has been transformed into a producer owned co-operative and competes to secure its inventory with other processors and exporters in a lamb market un-distorted by government intervention.

QUALITY ASSURANCE

The PGA has supported and assisted in the introduction of quality assurance programs.  It is also committed to introduction of vendor declarations and implementation of live export protocols to maintain our commitment to supplying quality products to consumers.

The PGA continues to support and assist quality assurance programs such as the Livestock Production Assurance (LPA) national vendor declaration/waybill.  However, the PGA firmly believes anything more elaborate should be voluntary and driven by price signals from the market place.

WOOL

The PGA has a proud history in the wool industry, having led the successful campaign against the reserve price scheme for wool in the early 1990s.  The PGA remains optimistic in regards to the future of the wool industry and supports a long-term vision for further on-farm R&D from levy money collected from Australian Wool Innovation.  The PGA maintains a firm belief that the market should decide whether wool should come from mulesed sheep or non-mulesed sheep and the continuity of wool identification and specification should be driven from the top down.  Whilst acknowledging that the National Wool Declaration is important, it will be uptake by the market that gives it real value to producers.

SHEEPMEATS

The PGA is the only Western Australian industry body represented on Sheepmeats Council Australia.  The leadership of the PGA on this industry body has been critical in seeing initiatives in animal health and appropriate research and development, which has seen the industry, achieve significant growth of late.

The PGA also continues to fight for a common sense approach to lamb definition so that consumers and producers can be assured of sheepmeat eating quality.

BIOSECURITY

The PGA works with AQIS and the state and federal primary industry departments to ensure that practical and effective measures are taken to ensure that disease is prevented and controlled in this state.  The PGA is involved in committees dealing with footrot, the successful implementation of the OJD program (which is envied on the east), BJD and bluetongue and works with producers on issues dealing with quality assurance to allow its members procedures and a voice in disease outbreak management.  We also worked hard to make the introduction of the sheep NLIS program as simple as possible, given that WA was already nearly there with a market driven program.

ANIMAL WELFARE

The PGA continues to emphasise the important role that producers play in the welfare of production animals.  The PGA makes regular contact with animal liberationist groups to correct any misguided information they may receive.

REGIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE

The PGA successfully lobbied for the sale of part of the Midland saleyards to fund the new regional saleyard complex at Muchea.  The PGA also supports investment in regional saleyards and is taking a greater interest in the management of the regional ports for live export.

For more information on any issues on these issues, please contact the PGA for further information.

We value your opinion and would welcome feedback from all producers on our Aims & Objectives for the Australian meat & livestock industry.

       
AIMS

- Foster policies which promote an open and competitive livestock industry to enhance the long term viability of the industry.

- Encourage research and development initiatives that foster new technology and improve marketing opportunities for the livestock industry.

- Foster the development of overseas trade through the support of free enterprise.

OBJECTIVES

The PGA has developed targets which aim to justify both Western Australian and Australian agricultural policies 

State Objectives

- Monitor and seek accountability from governmental enquires, strategy groups and committees.

- Encourage the use of vendor declarations by all producers.

- Lobby the meat industry authority to implement uniform wet curfew standards.

- Monitor the progress of footrot eradication under the new Biosecurity and Management Act.

- Encourage mechanisms which protect vendor security of proceeds.

- Promote strict surveillance and import testing procedures of animal disease to uphold Western Australian disease free status.

National Objectives

- Ensure the performance of statutory marketing organisations is measurable and accountable to the meat and livestock industries.

- Develop strategies to ensure the production of beef, lamb & sheep meats are maintained as viable alternatives to other agricultural commodities.  It is imperative that traditional land uses, important for food production, are not overlooked when agricultural land is used for other purposes such as managed tax investments.  As the ultimate purpose of such schemes is to offset tax, and not food production, they will inevitably lead to a reduction in the amount of land available for essential agricultural production.  It is essential to future food security that food producers continue to have fair and uniform access to productive agricultural land.

- Lobby Government to provide the most efficient and cost effective Australian quarantine inspection service whilst maintaining integrity of service.

- Encourage joint industry lobbying to increase Australian sheepmeat and beef access to international markets.

- Encourage effective market intelligence, forecasting and producer feedback schemes.

- Encourage the redistribution of livestock levies to enable implementation of regional marketing and promotional programs.

- Promote the establishment of a joint industry plan to implement continuity and consistency of supply to increase the long term profitability to producers.

- Encourage strict quarantine and disease surveillance to ensure Western Australia retains its "disease free" status.

- Encourage the funds available to agriculture to be spent in Australia for the benefit of all Australians, not just producers.