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Speaker 1: A bit of a change of pace because we know

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Speaker 1: that we're in a situation. At the moment, we're a

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Speaker 1: live export vessel loaded with cattle. I had a major

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Speaker 1: engine failure in Darwin Harbor last week. Now vetts had

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Speaker 1: been conducting or well certainly have been conducting daily checks

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Speaker 1: to ensure the welfare of the cattle with monitoring by

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Speaker 1: the exporter and joining me on the line to tell

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Speaker 1: us a little bit more about the situation, is nt.

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Speaker 1: Livestock Exporters Association CEO Tom Dawkins. Good morning, Tomy. Great

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Speaker 1: to have you on the show mate. What happened with

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Speaker 1: the ship last week.

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Speaker 2: It was a mechanical fault that became evident once the

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Speaker 2: cattle were loaded, and at that point a series of

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Speaker 2: I guess the procedures were put in place. And it's

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Speaker 2: quite a complicated jurisdictional space because once those kaylor on

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Speaker 2: the ship, they've got everything they need for their of

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Speaker 2: their voyage. So they actually had plenty of fodder and

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Speaker 2: supervision and space and the rest, but they're actually in

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Speaker 2: Commonwealth jurisdiction months they're on the ship and considered exported.

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Speaker 2: So it's just a matter of working out how long

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Speaker 2: those repairs were going to take and what was the

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Speaker 2: best outcome for the animals, And that's what that's why

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Speaker 2: they remained there for a number of days, because we

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Speaker 2: don't disturb them lightly. And if there was a good

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Speaker 2: chance that we could get that ship underway within a

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Speaker 2: few days, then then the best thing would be to

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Speaker 2: leave the cattle where they were. But the Commonwealth, with

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Speaker 2: all the information they had on hand from the exporter

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Speaker 2: and looking at the timeline, decided that they'd be discharged.

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Speaker 2: That decision was made over the weekend, and the cattle

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Speaker 2: was successfully unloaded yesterday afternoon and until last night.

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Speaker 1: Tom. I'll tell you what, for a towny like me,

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Speaker 1: you know, talking to you this morning, it all seems

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Speaker 1: it seems like it would have been a pretty big

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Speaker 1: job firstly getting them on that ship, but then to

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Speaker 1: sort of have to unload them due to a mechanical issue,

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Speaker 1: it seems like it'll be quite a bit of work.

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Speaker 2: It's quite a bit of work. I mean, yesterday was

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Speaker 2: it was just the loading process in reverse. It sounds

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Speaker 2: like a pretty obvious thing to say, but we're obviously

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Speaker 2: very good at putting hundreds and hundreds of thousands of

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Speaker 2: livestock onto ships from port to port of Dwin every year,

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Speaker 2: so yes, it was pretty similar. It was just unloading

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Speaker 2: them and doing what we're more used to do in

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Speaker 2: countries like Indonesia to unload them and the process. We're

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Speaker 2: talking about pretty professional sort of people that are used

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Speaker 2: to loading and unloading and look after the welfare of animals.

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Speaker 2: So just doing that with the trucking company, the ship banner,

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Speaker 2: the ex border, plus the anti government that the Chief

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Speaker 2: set and the Commonwealth set. So I appreciate to your

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Speaker 2: audience that sounds like a big logistical exercise. It certainly is.

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Speaker 2: But when when when we're pretty well versed that doing

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Speaker 2: this day and having contingencies in place for anything that

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Speaker 2: might arise, then yesterday's operation was with a well planned

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Speaker 2: out exercise and credit to everyone that that that got

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Speaker 2: to work and got it done and got the animals

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Speaker 2: back back to the quarantine yard and good order.

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Speaker 1: Tom what was the issue with the sheep or what

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Speaker 1: had happened with that ship?

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Speaker 2: It was just a mechanical fault. So it's no different

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Speaker 2: to you know, any other issue that might arise on

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Speaker 2: a vessel or or a truck that that you know,

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Speaker 2: you don't know it's there until it till it's until

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Speaker 2: it's evident. So they're about to get the voyage underway,

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Speaker 2: and the era was noticed a part was required. The

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Speaker 2: captains then decided to cancel the departure and they investigated.

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Speaker 2: Often these parts take a fair while to bring in

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Speaker 2: from somewhere across the world, and that's why we sat

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Speaker 2: tight for a few days. And once it became evident

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Speaker 2: that we might be waiting a bit longer, you just

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Speaker 2: make that decision that bring the animals off and put

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Speaker 2: them into quarantine.

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Speaker 1: No, which you know, it seems like a fair enough

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Speaker 1: thing to do and something that you'd have to you

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Speaker 1: know that you'd really have to be looking at just

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Speaker 1: how long you're keeping them there.

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Speaker 3: How are all those cattle? Are they all in good health?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? So under extra supervision during from the Commonwealth. That's

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Speaker 2: I know. The chief sets from the NT went on

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Speaker 2: board yesterday. I discharged. You know that they've had every

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Speaker 2: bit of care and husbandry that they could ask for

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Speaker 2: over the past week, with fodder and spacing and air

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Speaker 2: and water and everything else. So they've walked off having

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Speaker 2: just been on a very well equipped floating feed lot

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Speaker 2: for a few days wondering what all the fuss is about,

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Speaker 2: and that they are in good order, and you know

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Speaker 2: they would be because they have to be in good

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Speaker 2: order and good condition, good health to get on the

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Speaker 2: ship in the first place.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, are they I mean, were they sort of security

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Speaker 1: risks or anything like that that need to be taken

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Speaker 1: into consideration.

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Speaker 2: Just in a technical sense for the ship. The ship

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Speaker 2: hasn't certainly you know, hasn't hasn't got any evident by

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Speaker 2: security risks. But just from a technical perspective, those cattle

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Speaker 2: are considered exported once on the on the vessel, and

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Speaker 2: so the way our systems set up and we we

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Speaker 2: we certainly don't cut any corners in biosecurity. So that's

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Speaker 2: why we're put an extra sort of monitoring lens on

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Speaker 2: them over the course of the week and that they'll

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Speaker 2: they'll have some extra monitoring now back in the export

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Speaker 2: yards South Azara and in quarantine. It's an extra precaution.

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Speaker 2: But when we've been talking to the Commonwealth and the

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Speaker 2: nt t FET in the last week or so, over

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Speaker 2: the weekend, it's really been a great opportunity to operationalize

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Speaker 2: many of the aspects of our emergency Animal disease response

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Speaker 2: systems without having an actual emergency animal disease materialized. So

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Speaker 2: at this stage, a lot of those systems that we've workshopped,

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Speaker 2: especially in the last month, have stood up really, really well.

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Speaker 2: It's not always easy to get the Commonwealth territory authorities

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Speaker 2: in sync with each other, and then to get industry

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Speaker 2: and a pretty complicated I guess from the outside, a

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Speaker 2: pretty complicated logistic supply chain system all working in sync.

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Speaker 2: But I was very pleased with a lot of seen yesterday.

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Speaker 2: And you know, we are proud that we're an industry

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Speaker 2: that can stand up and respond to to to incidences

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Speaker 2: as they arise, and do it do it in a

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Speaker 2: way that we're proud to be on show. We've got

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Speaker 2: nothing to hide. The well being of our animals is

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Speaker 2: not compromised. So very very much proud of the effort

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Speaker 2: that's gone in in recent days.

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Speaker 1: Tom When do you reckon that the cattle will be

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Speaker 1: ready to get back on the ship and be ready

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Speaker 1: to go.

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Speaker 2: I expect that will bear matter for both the exporter

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Speaker 2: to arrange new shipping arrangements and then just for the

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Speaker 2: from that bio security perspective, for the authorities to give

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Speaker 2: them the all clear to UH to depart again, so

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Speaker 2: they'll they'll certainly be in the export yards for the

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Speaker 2: coming days. And again they're under pretty close division. They're good, healthy,

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Speaker 2: healthy animals, and they're getting get airy. I think they

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Speaker 2: could they could probably desire whether at the moment, it's

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Speaker 2: you know, pretty good time to be carrying out this

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Speaker 2: sort of operation. It was pretty pretty pretty friendly weather

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Speaker 2: there last night. It's pretty friendly weather for holding animals

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Speaker 2: in the of the coming days.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like it's you know, it does sound like

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Speaker 1: it's been a good, big job. But as you've said,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's been an opportunity for you guys to

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Speaker 1: sort of put some of those you know, those different

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Speaker 1: exercises into motion.

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Speaker 3: How any cattle are you talking?

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Speaker 2: There's about eighteen hundred on board, and and this is

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Speaker 2: this is one of the smaller ships in our know,

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Speaker 2: of all the ships that service the lostock export trade

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Speaker 2: out of Darwin, that's that's one of the smaller consignments.

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Speaker 2: So we're I guess we're fortunate in that respect. But

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Speaker 2: you call upon the trucking companies to do what they

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Speaker 2: need to do. The stevedores at the port yesterday on

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Speaker 2: the wharf unloading. It's a tame effort and ye're grateful

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Speaker 2: for for the way that's it's all come together pretty well.

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Speaker 2: And you know, we're lucky in Darwin. I think we

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Speaker 2: know the livestock industries a prominent part of the territories

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Speaker 2: de somomy and and and it's a prominent part of you.

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Speaker 2: That wouldn't be too many people. Okay, you say you're

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Speaker 2: a town, we all know someone who's involved int and

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Speaker 2: that's not the case everywhere else in Australia. So we

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Speaker 2: know that we everything we do is on show and

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Speaker 2: we're accountable for that. We're always conscious of doing doing

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Speaker 2: the right things.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, absolutely well we seem to do it well.

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Speaker 1: We seem to do it very well here in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory. And it is a massive industry to the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory. Tom, Can I just ask you quickly have

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Speaker 1: you had like have we had something like this happened before?

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Speaker 3: Is it? Is it a pretty sort of rare occurrence.

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Speaker 2: My own personal experience of over I guess don't come

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Speaker 2: out a decade closely involved in live trade across Australia

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Speaker 2: and around the world. You know, these mechanical faults occurred

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Speaker 2: and then you just you just then do work out

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Speaker 2: whether to discharge or not. There's been there's been accadence

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Speaker 2: where you've unloaded, and yeah, it's a pretty rare occurrence

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Speaker 2: to have to unload because of the delay. But there's

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Speaker 2: just been just getting those systems in those bio security

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Speaker 2: systems in place to ensure that we're not compromising. There's

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Speaker 2: no there's no questions from our customers overseas about whether

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Speaker 2: any corners have been cut because that quality insurance is

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Speaker 2: what a great deal of the wealth of the industry

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Speaker 2: depends on across all of agriculture, not just not just

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Speaker 2: the live export side of it, but red made exports

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Speaker 2: and then agriculture more generally. So we're pretty well rehearsed

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Speaker 2: in anything that might arise. And in the North it

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Speaker 2: might be it might be it might be a storm,

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Speaker 2: or it might be monsoon rain, or it could be anything.

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Speaker 2: Be ready to respond and be agile.

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Speaker 1: But tell me just very quickly before I let you go,

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Speaker 1: how are things going in terms of our.

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Speaker 3: Exports for the year.

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Speaker 1: You know, have we had a good year so far

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Speaker 1: and are you expecting it to ramp up?

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Speaker 2: It's we're at the time of here where where the

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Speaker 2: producers are able to get onto their country and must

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Speaker 2: and that was probably delayed in a lot of areas

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Speaker 2: because it was such a big wet season, So that's

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Speaker 2: that's been a slower start. We've seen prices come down

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Speaker 2: to where they have been the last couple of years,

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Speaker 2: which isn't isn't making producers particularly excited about guess in

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Speaker 2: a historical context, but the prices are still on the

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Speaker 2: better side of the average. It's really important for our

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Speaker 2: trade and I'm standing outside the Indonesian consulate right now.

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Speaker 2: Our customers depend on reliable protein, but they also looked

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Speaker 2: for us for affordable proteins, so it's a big, big

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Speaker 2: challenge in our supply chain. When we get extreme cattle

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Speaker 2: in Australia. We'd like to see the producer rewarded for

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Speaker 2: their good work, but we also don't want to lose

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Speaker 2: market share because we've just become really too expensive for

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Speaker 2: our customers in Southeast Data. So I think we're looking

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Speaker 2: at a price range now and some affordability that's more

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Speaker 2: within a sustainable range.

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Speaker 3: Well, Tom, good to catch up with you this morning, mate.

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Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time and thank you for having

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Speaker 1: a bit of a chat to us about that situation

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Speaker 1: with the cattle on the Sheep's sorry on the ship.

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Speaker 3: It sounds as so.

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Speaker 1: It sounds as though everything is going to get back

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Speaker 1: underway at some point in the very near future.

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Speaker 3: So I appreciate you having a chat with us.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for the chance, Thanks mate to talk about it. Katie,

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Speaker 2: thank you, no.

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00:13:47,640 --> 00:13:48,880
Speaker 3: Worries at all. Thanks Tom,