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Our Progress
New Petition - Saturday 14th September, 2013
A new petition has been created in conjunction with Domo's Yabbies and Otway Yabbies and is to be presented in the Victorian Parliament.
This new petition has been created as unfortunately the previous petition was not able to presented in parliament and no correspondence has been received from our local MP Gary Blackwood - see below.
Please see our Home Page for the petition.
For more information you can also see the Petition Background Page.
Please send all signed petitions via post to our Postal Address at P.O.Box 95, Trafalgar, 3824.
Submission to the Inquiry into the Impact of Food Safety Regulation on Farms and Small Businesses - Thursday 18th October, 2012
On
Thursday 18th October 2012 a representative of Community Support for
L.E. Giles & Sons Inc. appeared in front of the Parliament of
Victoria's Rural and Regional Committee at a hearing in Sale for the
Inquiry into Food Safety Regulation on Farms and Small Businesses and
expressed concern on regulatory bodies making decisions relating to a
situation without understanding the consequences on interdependent
businesses.
We used two case studies to highlight the impact the
closure of the Giles abattoir has had on these businesses.
A copy
of the transcript can be found on the Rural and Regional Committee,
Parliament of Victoria webpage at the following link: http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/rrc/article/1859
The Rural and Regional Committee tabled their Final Report in March 2013 see link below:
http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/committees/rrc/IFSR/Final_Report_Inquiry_into_the_Impact_of_Food_Safety_Regulation.pdf
Key Findings in relation to L.E.Giles & Sons from the Final Report include:
5.77 A number of concerns were expresses to the committee regarding the closure of L E Giles and Sons:
• Publicly
announcing an intention to begin the process of cancelling L E Giles
and Sons’ licence before the investigation was concluded
• The fact
that decisions were not put in writing – Mr Casey believed that he has
explained the show cause process to Mr Colin Giles. However, considering
s 22 (3) of the Meat Industry Act 1993 may be difficult for a member of
the public without experience in legislation to understand, L E Giles
and Sons may have been better advised to withhold any decision on
forfeiting their licence until PrimeSafe had provided written
notification
• The apparent incomplete nature of audits carried out at L E Giles and Sons
• The apparent lack of consistency between the approach taken with L E
Giles and Sons and other abattoirs with similar non-compliance issues
• The damage to small farming businesses reliant on small local
abattoirs and animal welfare caused by the closure of L E Giles and
Sons.
5.78 In light of these concerns expressed to the
committee it is important that regulators not only have the proper
process in place to deal with non-compliance but that these are
implemented in a transparent way.
Impact Statements - October 2012
In 2012, Community
Support for L.E.Giles & Sons Inc.created an impact form for all those whom had been impacted directly or indirectly by the closure of the L.E.Giles & Sons abattoir.
Prior to the creation of the Impact Form it had been suggested that the closure of the abattoir had little to no impact, on the community in which it served.
As there was an absence of data on the effects that had been endured, an impact form was created to collect such data, to provide evidence to the relevant bodies that this closure has impacted significantly greater than what had PrimeSafe had suggested previously in the media.
In late 2012, Community Support for L.E.Giles & Sons Inc, appeared at Parliament of Victoria's - Inquiry into the Impact of Food Safety Regulation on farms and other businesses. The data and evidence gained through these impact statement were used in this submission. Please note that , the information provided has been collated into collective data to ensure that privacy and confidentiality has been maintained.
Petition - Wednesday 21st March, 2012
Community Support for L.E.Giles & Sons Inc. collected and collated a petition created by the local community requesting that, a full investigation into the actions of the Governing Bodies be performed following the unjust closure of the L.E.Giles & Sons Abattoir.
This was submitted to the local MP. Gary Blackwood (Member for Narracan) on Wednesday 21st March, 2012, with 3,346 signatures supporting the petition request.
It was requested that MP Gary Blackwood present the petition to Hon Peter Walsh (Minister for Agriculture and Food Security) for review.
As yet we have received NO correspondence regarding the petition from MP Gary Blackwood, despite multiple attempts to seek answers on the outcome of this petition - 31/10/13.
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