Mountains out of Muchea molehills

The WA Meat Industry Authority has denied the Muchea Livestock Centre is not being managed properly and has accused a rural media publication of an "opportunistic beat-up" by reporting on perceived problems at the complex.

Last week it claimed that agents, buyers, farmers and transporters reported an "abundance of problems" at last Monday's sale.

The report outlined complaints from some of the facility's users, including computer issues, the display of wrong card and weight information, clerk information not matching up with pens, transit cattle being mixed with general sale cattle, cattle being missed during the sale, inexperienced staff, drafting problems and a long wait to weigh cattle and process sales.

The fresh claims come after the MLC went into meltdown in March after 2500 head of cattle unexpectedly filled the pens at the yard, causing mayhem and confusion, with buyers and sellers waiting up to two days for their cattle to be weighed.

The March incident sparked action from the WAMIA board, including a move to seek a new chief executive.

Last week, _Countryman _reported that Renata Paliskis had resigned as chief executive after news that her contract would not be renewed.

Ms Paliskis' contract was due to end on December 31, but she left the position after the WAMIA board declared a need for a "new direction".

WAMIA vice-chairman Warren Robinson said he believed selected users of the facility had been interviewed by the publication over their objections to WAMIA joint-venture partner Livestock Logistics WA's plans to reverse the pen numbers at the centre on December 10.

"We decided to reverse the numbers so the cattle are not walking from the pens against the sale," he said.

"I think the reporters caught wind of a few long-held and emotive complaints from a certain quarter of the facility's users and made a story out of it.

"We don't deny there were some issues last week, however I think the whole thing was blown way out of proportion," Mr Robinson said.

"I actually think we've been progressing since the problems were raised in March and, in fact, in the last month I have not had one person come to me with an issue, until last weekend.

"I put my hand up and acknowledge we had some problems that needed to be resolved but many of those issues have been fixed and we've now moved on."

Mr Robinson said the issues raised last week in the report had been fixed promptly.

"There were some cattle put into the wrong pens," he said.

"On Sunday, the cattle are received, drafted and put in their pens. Monday morning at 3am, each animal is required to be weighed and then be walk- ed back into the same pen.

"What actually happened is we had some inexperienced staff that led the cattle back without the supervision of more experienced staff, and that's our fault.

"We can blame the new staff but really it wasn't their fault.

"It was not as big an issue as some people have made it out to be."

Mr Robinson also said MLC staff inexperience had been a major issue since relocating from the Midland saleyards in 2010.

"We started out with a core of experienced workers but over age and time we've lost that core of workers and that experience is very difficult to replace," he said.

"The problem is finding experienced people to guide the new younger workers.

"We've also been trying for more than two years to get the right manager for MLC joint- venture partner Livestock Logistics WA and we still have been unable to achieve that. So it has been a bit frustrating."

Mr Robinson said issues reported last week were an irregular occurrence at the centre.

He also said IT and training complaints raised in the report were outdated and inaccurate.

"LLWA has spent a considerable amount of money on IT in the last six months since the March incident," he said. "We realised we did have an issue with IT but we're well on the way to getting those issues rectified.

"The system just needed to be upgraded, which it has been, and I believe it is a good system. A lot of the old data in the system needed to be kicked out and disposed of.

"We're not having too many issues with the system, I assure you. We can't use the system as an excuse of inefficiencies now."

Mr Robinson also said adequate training on the system had been a problem, but after the March incident all staff had been trained by the software company.

"If you go back to earlier in the year, many of the previous staff had not trained the new staff on the system properly," he said.

"We now have our administration supervisor Carla Henning in the office and she is completely up-to-date with the administration of the system. Ms Henning has taken responsibility for making sure all new staff are properly trained on the system.

"We haven't had any IT issues for quite a while. People might say that the system is no good, but our view is they're making emotive comments about a system that they are not aware of.

"They're only repeating what they have heard from others. If someone is going to make a comment about our staff or system, they have got to make sure they have their facts right.

"And there is no doubt that some of the users of this facility make statements that are not based on the facts. People are just repeating the old stuff."

Mr Robinson also said the system upgrade had been budgeted for before the March incident.

"The system upgrade had been always been planned, but as a result of the March incident we had to bring forward the upgrade," he said.

The WAMIA chief executive position has been advertised and WAMIA hopes the vacancy will be filled before the end of the year.