Draft live export transition document still to be finessed

Federal bureaucrats say a draft document detailing how the $139 million live export transition fund could be spent was “inadvertently distributed” but have refused to reveal how or who it was leaked to.

The farm rumour mill went into overdrive late last month when the document showing how the Federal Department of Agriculture planned to allocate the $45.5m set aside for WA’s sheep and wool sectors was distributed to media.

The draft — marked “confidential — revealed concerns the funding would not go far enough, and revealed the ways the money would be broken down into grant programs for farmers, shearers, trucking and logistic companies, and sheep processors.

Questions sent to the Federal Department of Agriculture by the Countryman were met with limited answers this week, with no response to questions regarding whether it was investigating how it was leaked, if it was liaising with farm groups about the content, and whether there would be any major changes to the document before it was presented to government.

“The department is aware of the inadvertent distribution of a draft document which reflects early internal planning for one component of the phase out of live sheep exports by sea assistance program,” a Department spokeswoman said.

“The department does not comment on internal processes.

“A range of options are still in development by the department. The document has not been provided to government.

“All program funding decisions are a matter for government.”

The $139m transition package was originally announced as $107 million in May, before being upped to $139m in October after backlash from the nation’s agriculture industry.

Six of the State’s peak farming bodies wrote to WA Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis last year, asking her to request a new $300 million support package from the Commonwealth.

Ms Minister Jackie Jarvis revealed on last month that she had signed a letter of intent to deliver the first tranche of the government’s $139m transition package for the phase-out.

At the time, she confirmed the first $40m of that package would start rolling out in June, and had been earmarked for processors and feedlotters to complete “capital works”.