Payments to live ex independent panel revealed in Senate Estimates

The payments for the independent panel, appointed by the government to oversee the consultation process, were laid bare at the Senate Estimates meetings in Canberra last week.

Chairman and former senior public servant Phillip Glyde receives a daily sitting fee of $1541, while other members Heather Neil, Sue Middleton and Warren Snowdon, receive $1388 each day.

Acting Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) first secretary, traceability, plant and live animal exports, Andrew McDonald said these daily rates were in line with government standards.

"They've been matched to Remuneration Tribunal rates," said Federal Agriculture Murray Watt.

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There is also $364,600 allocated for the panel's travel expenses and this will include members of the DAFF secretariat.

"We think it is important the consultation process is genuine and thorough," Mr Watt said.

At Senate Estimates, Federal National Party senator for Victoria, Bridget McKenzie, questioned DAFF on further research and data, wanting to know if any of the work had been commissioned yet.

"We're in the final stages of commissioning some economic analysis to support the work of the panel," Mr McDonald said.

"And we have a small literature review under way."

This small literature review was published on the ausTENDER website on May 17, titled Assessment of Existing Studies on the Live Sheep Trade, and was awarded to Alistair Davey, director and founding chairman of Pegasus Economics, for $49,500, with a contract period ending on June 30.

Farm Weekly asked DAFF if Pegasus Economics' affiliation to Animals Australia, having been commissioned by the organisation to complete four reports on the trade between 2018 through to 2023, was a conflict of interest.

The DAFF spokesperson said it was not an issue.

"This consulting firm has many years of experience in analysis and has completed reports on a range of subject matter for different clients, including by the department to undertake a report on a biosecurity imports levy," the spokesperson said.

"The consultancy firm itself is not a so-called activist association."

Pegasus Economics has been engaged to factually summarise without sentiment, pre-existing reports relating to live sheep exports.

"The report is separate to the economic analysis being undertaken," the spokesperson said.

"The report will support the panel's consideration of pre-existing reports relating to live sheep exports.

When asked if other businesses had been approached about this, DAFF said it was a limited tender.

"The approach to market was through a limited tender as the value of the contract is less than the procurement threshold for non-corporate Commonwealth entities," the spokesperson said.

The department is aware of reports, including Mecardo's 2018 Live Sheep Export - Brief Report, that have been produced on live sheep exports.

"Mecardo is also not independent," the spokesperson said.

"It is owned by Nutrien, a multi-national company that provides services to the industry.

"The firm holds the requisite information, has the ability to provide the services at short notice and within the desired timeframes, and a non-competitive pre-existing understanding of these reports given their historical work on this subject matter.

"This consulting firm has many years of experience in analysis and has completed reports on a range of subject matter for different clients."

Western Australian Livestock Exporters Association chairman John Cunnington said the industry would be looking at the document produced by Pegasus Economics that is assessing the existing studies.

"But, the economic analysis is the main focus for everyone involved in the supply chain," Mr Cunnington said.

"We are very interested in who has the tender to prepare the impact report, because the panel will be relying on that information to base some of its recommendations on and if the information is incorrect it has the potential to be very damaging.

"The analysis needs to be conducted by people who understand the commodities markets and the industry.

"The sheep live export trade is complex and linked to many other industries, the repercussions of losing the market suddenly could be crippling for the sheep industry in WA."

The ausTENDER for the economic analysis was not finalised when Farm Weekly went to print.

Meanwhile LiveCorp revealed it also had an economic analysis ready and has been asked to supply this report to the panel.

"We have been quite open with the panel and the department that we're doing that economic work," said LiveCorp chairman Troy Setter.

"Then we have got a lot of statistics around performance and animals delivered and then also pointing to where other work has been done and the impact works that we have got and some of the welfare work."

He said the economic analysis would look at what economic damage or loss would be experienced by sheep graziers affected by the ban.

"Some of these communities, as we're seeing in other sectors, 70-80 per cent of their work force, basically the whole community, is reliant on this particular sector," Mr Setter said.

"There is work done by the central international economics group that found that a close of the live sheep trade would drop saleyard prices for sheep in WA between 30-60pc long-term.

"They have now done three independent community sentiment works, so they survey about 4000 to 5000 people."

LiveCorp said there was a lot of people not aware about live export or not engaged in it and they either don't care or don't get information about it.

"You have to take that into account with the data and the information," Mr Setter said

He said in 2019, 67pc of participants agreed when asked if farming communities would suffer economic hardship should the live export industry discontinue, with the figure rising to 78pc in 2023.

"We asked participants whether live exports should be stopped regardless of the impact on farmers," Mr Setter said.

He said just under a third agreed with that in 2023, when in 2019 it was 53pc.

The survey was randomly sampled across the country, to represent Australian society.

"It is population data for age, gender and education so it is a whole of society inquiry," he said.

Rounding out the budget discussion was the number of departmental officials working to support the panel's work.

The annual staffing allocation for this financial year 4.9 full-time equivalents (FTE) and this will expand to 11.9 FTEs for next year.