Mr WOOD - 2003-08-20
As you know, small businesses which produce and sell crocodile products require crocodile product identification tags from Parks and Wildlife. Recently, a constituent of mine rang Parks and Wildlife and, after leaving a number of messages which were not answered, he was told by a junior staff member they only had 24 tags left and no more were in stock. He rang your office, I believe and, thankfully, your staff chased down another 216 from other businesses, which enabled the small businessman to continue operating. Can you say why your department has run out of these tags? What is your department doing to make sure there is adequate stock of these tags at the Parks and Wildlife office at all times so this will not happen again?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question. They ran out of tags because there was an increased demand for tags. By the time they ordered them, the Government Printer advised us they were going to be ready by 22 August. Unfortunately, one of the retailers wanted some on Thursday, 21 August, to sell some of his products at Mindil Beach. Therefore, my department chased tags and found 250 tags, which we borrowed from another producer and provided to this retailer.
However, the department will now have a number of tags this Friday, so we are not going to face the problem. The problem with the tags is that it is necessary for us to identify crocodile products produced under supervision, so that they can be sold freely in the market, otherwise we can face problems with illegal processing. I would also like to mention that the department will increase the number of tags they keep in stock to avoid these delays in providing tags to the producers.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question. They ran out of tags because there was an increased demand for tags. By the time they ordered them, the Government Printer advised us they were going to be ready by 22 August. Unfortunately, one of the retailers wanted some on Thursday, 21 August, to sell some of his products at Mindil Beach. Therefore, my department chased tags and found 250 tags, which we borrowed from another producer and provided to this retailer.
However, the department will now have a number of tags this Friday, so we are not going to face the problem. The problem with the tags is that it is necessary for us to identify crocodile products produced under supervision, so that they can be sold freely in the market, otherwise we can face problems with illegal processing. I would also like to mention that the department will increase the number of tags they keep in stock to avoid these delays in providing tags to the producers.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016