Mrs PADGHAM-PURICH - 1996-05-14
What is the current situation of the TB-quarantined buffalo at the Coastal Plains Research Station? Will further extensive tests to prove TB-negative status be done on all buffalo at the CPRS? What is the future of the old cows at the CPRS? What is the future of the imported and very valuable riverine bulls at the CPRS? What is the future of the young cows and heifers which are privately owned but were at the CPRS at the time of the TB outbreak there? Finally, what is the future of the buffalo industry?
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ANSWER
Mr Speaker, that is a very detailed and complicated question. I understand from my department that all normal arrangements are in place. Obviously, the future for infected animals, and those animals that have been in contact with infected animals, is not very bright.
As to the future of the buffalo industry in the Northern Territory, it is really an industry problem in that the prices obtainable for buffalo are well in excess of what can be obtained for beef cattle at the present time. However, there are insufficient people in the industry at present who are willing to take up the substantial investments needed to return the buffalo industry to the large scale on which it operated in the past.
Mr EDE: Whose fault is that?
Mr PALMER: The member for Stuart asks whose fault that is. It is not a matter of fault or attributing blame. It is simply that beef cattle prices have risen dramatically over the last few years, through the live export trade, to the point where it is the best cattle market in the world, and the prospects for that cattle market continue to be rather sound and very rosy. However, I undertake to provide the honourable member with a more detailed brief.
Page 1333
Page 1332
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, that is a very detailed and complicated question. I understand from my department that all normal arrangements are in place. Obviously, the future for infected animals, and those animals that have been in contact with infected animals, is not very bright.
As to the future of the buffalo industry in the Northern Territory, it is really an industry problem in that the prices obtainable for buffalo are well in excess of what can be obtained for beef cattle at the present time. However, there are insufficient people in the industry at present who are willing to take up the substantial investments needed to return the buffalo industry to the large scale on which it operated in the past.
Mr EDE: Whose fault is that?
Mr PALMER: The member for Stuart asks whose fault that is. It is not a matter of fault or attributing blame. It is simply that beef cattle prices have risen dramatically over the last few years, through the live export trade, to the point where it is the best cattle market in the world, and the prospects for that cattle market continue to be rather sound and very rosy. However, I undertake to provide the honourable member with a more detailed brief.
Page 1333
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016