Cop for live export

Damning review recommends independent top inspector

AUSTRALIA’S live export industry will be overseen by an independent inspector-general after a damning review of the government regulator showed disastrous failings to stop animal cruelty.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud yesterday released a long-awaited review of the culture, capability and investigative capacity of his department conducted by public sector integrity expert Philip Moss.

The external inspector-general will police the Agriculture Department’s regulation of live animal exports.

There will also be a principal regulatory officer within the department to improve regulatory practice, compliance and its culture.

The department’s animal welfare branch, which was scrapped by former agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce in 2013, will be reinstated.

New animal welfare indicators will be developed and introduced along the supply chain.

“We’ve always been reactionary around live trade, governments of all persuasion, and now we’re being proactive,” Mr Littleproud said.

The Moss review found the skills, resources and technology for effective regulation were lacking, with concerns the department’s dual roles in both promoting the trade and policing it could be contradictory.

Getting rid of the animal welfare branch detracted from the regulator’s ability to achieve that balance.

Mr Moss said it was telling the department had rarely used significant powers to suspend or cancel an export licence and it took whistleblower action to prompt that action earlier in the year.

In April, footage of 2400 sheep dying on voyages to the Middle East during a shipment in August 2017 emerged, prompting Mr Littleproud to initiate a range of reviews and immediate responses.