Victorian / New South Wales 5th Generation Upper Murray farmer and small business person Stephen Blair speaks out about his persecution by DPI bureaucrats that resulted in him being fined a total of $17,300 for NLIS (National Livestock Identification Scheme) breaches in an Albury Court last week.
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NSW / VIC Farmer Stephen Blair (pictured) writes:
DPI Grandstanding Premature and Inaccurate
The charges laid by the DPI against myself arose after extensive surveillance and undercover action by the Victorian Department of Primary Industry (DPI), NSW DPI and Hume Rural Lands Protection Board.
My only crime is running two properties, one in Victoria, on the border at Tallangatta and the other, Little Billabong at Holbrook in NSW. The properties are 100 kms. apart in direct line, and 150 kms. by road. They are located in adjoining local councils/shires, being Towong in Victoria and Hume in NSW.
Click Here to see the location of my properties and the Corryong saleyards in Victoria.
The DPI admitted in court that utilising the same NLIS ear tag on different properties under one management/ownership, in adjoining local council areas, in both states is common .
They also admitted that there are several examples of people utilising either State’s tag in the adjoining State, where a property crosses the river or border .e.g. Jingellic, Victoria/ NSW and Gondawindi, NSW/Queensland.
Utilising Victorian NLIS tags in NSW is by itself not a breach of the regulations, but doing so and then removing them from the property is.
In relation to this particular incident there were 800 cattle in the yards, with eight people working on them and trucks going to sale at Corryong (VIC), agistment in the North and back to the home property in Victoria.
Photo #2: Our property’s have been in the grips of the 6 year drought that has reeked havoc in Southern Australia. The shot below is of myself and my family hand feeding our cattle. We have not only had to contend with the stress of this ‘never ending drought’ but on top of that the ‘harassment’ of these DPI bureaucrats has taken a huge toll on my personal health not to mention my families well being.
I could not guarantee that cattle tagged that day did not leave the property. I could establish that some may have been tagged and left the property so I pleaded to a number less than 25, Not 177 as the DPI charged and are apparently still claiming.
The DPI have admitted that they could not prove due to insufficient evidence that any cattle had left the property after being tagged in breach of the regulations so my plea of guilty in relation to a number less than 25 was no doubt a relief and a godsend to the DPI, given their now grandstanding activities.
Minister MacDonald (NSW Minister for Primary Industries pictured) linking my behaviour and actions with a ‘foot and mouth disease outbreak’ (click on link to see ministers statement) or any disease outbreak is scurrilous and damaging.
My herd has been closed for 50 years with the only introductions being stud sires and the occasional stud cows for genetic improvement. Indeed it is the only herd in Australia that carries a MN3 Johnes Disease status in two states - NSW and Victoria.
This accreditation is only obtained after rigorous auditing, whole herd blood testing and extensive on farm management and administrative reporting: the scheme is administered by the Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA.)
Is Minister McDonald suggesting that the actual MLA disease testing and auditing procedures are deficient? i.e. similar Commonwealth Legislation that he now seeks to enforce on a state basis.
Remember, this is a closed Angus stud and commercial operation on two properties only with stringent management and audit requirements, not just for Johnes.
Minister McDonald’s statement that “Mr Blair’s actions could have delayed tracing long enough to allow a small outbreak of a devastating disease like foot and mouth to spread throughout the country” is defamatory and damaging and appropriate remedies will be sought.
The DPI also dropped another charge of obstructing an officer, also due to a lack of evidence: no mention of this in their grandstanding press release. Erroneously and unfairly, their costs for this charge were also lumped on me by the Magistrate.
An appeal has been lodged against:
• The conviction - being my first offence in any court or jurisdiction
• The severity of the fine
• The costs order.
Consideration has also been given to an application for a re-hearing and plea due to Magistrate Leferve’s obvious bias.
A letter has been sent to the Chief Magistrate of NSW in this regard, to clarify why Leferve heard the case when he had earlier disqualified himself due to his self-admitted attitude towards me, as a result of my behaviour to the court - (not DPI!).
Indeed he mocked me publicly in January 2008 when I was unable to attend court, due to being hospitalised under a stress-related health issue.
I am also intrigued by the DPI’s selective action and prosecution. The NSW DPI’s so-called Agricultural Compliance Manager, Andrew Sanger has been contacted in relation to much more serious breaches of the regulations e.g no NVD and no NLIS on movement of cattle, and he/ the DPI/the Minister have chosen to take no action.
I am not seeking sympathy just a fair go and real justice.
Yours sincerely,
Stephen Blair
Monday, June 30, 2008
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Tags: NLIS, Stephen Blair
As a local watching this issue of Stephen’s unfold I experienced several emotions.
Certainly there was empathy as we have and still are all suffering the effects of a drought that won’t end and it is a battle just coping with every day feeding and monitoring of stock, feed supplies and water and juggling of stock around to properties where they can be best managed.
Red tape is the last thing on a farmer’s mind when they have their back to the wall dealing with these issues. The reality is it would be difficult to find a farmer in this region who is not guilty of the very same transgression, either knowingly or unwittingly.
Every sale day is proof of that fact when cattle are scanned and are recorded as NOT LIFETIME TRACEABLE because someone has not recorded that cattle have been moved from one property to another and are sent into the sale yards with the wrong property NVD.
If Stephen’s case doesn’t put the fear of the hand of the DPI descending on farmers, it bloody well should!
Yes I felt utter disgust at the biased reporting in the local press. I’m pleased this item has at least aired the other side of the story.
Real criminals gain better treatment. It so smacked of “kick the bastard while he’s down” and make an example of him. If the intent was to send out a message to farmers they will obey the rules of NLIS or suffer the same treatment then it has hit its target but disdain for this ridiculous system that is plaguing our industry and scorn for all that it stands for is what is embedded in every farmers heart.
Will Stephen be the last victim? I doubt it. If DPIs were serious about the risks of tracing a devastating disease they would impound a quarter of the cattle for non traceability sent to the Wodonga sale tomorrow (as well as every sale yard in the Country every day) and crucify the vendors as well as the agents…….at least Stephen wouldn’t feel so lonely!
Jenny Bird
The whole NLIS thing is nothing more than a farce and an attempt by public servants to establish yet another regulatory arm of government where the NLIS architects can get their snouts in the trough and savvy the swill.
Every netting fence I have has these stupid damn tags hooked on them and pulled out of ears. The floor of any truck at Wodonga saleyards has a number of tags laying in the muck on the tray.
Can McDonald tell the farmers, who are spending an exorbitant amount of money on these tags when they can expect a financial return for the effort and expenses they have incurred in tagging their animals.
I do not know Stephen Blair but have no doubt a vendetta is being run against him by the authorities.
The Rural Lands Protection Board are without a doubt the gutter of rural NSW. There are directors most of whom are not even elected who feel it their duty to attend futile meetings and play farmer against farmer while always taking and reinforcing the position of the government or the board against the ratepayer.
The reality is the Boards in NSW are unconstitutional. The rate they charge is an excise tax and illegal. The directors all know this yet they are still prepared to help Board staff wield a stick and charge rates that are illegal.
These are the same parasites that vote to assist and prosecute battling farmers who they are supposed to represent.
Stephen Blair should use the defense of an unconstitutional Board in Court and let McDonald and his lot swing by their finger nails outside the High Court for the ten years it will take to get a ruling on these illegal rates and the subsequent illegal RLPB Act. No proper Court will dispute the fact that the rates are a tax on production and thus illegal. On duties of customs and excise the Commonwealth shall have rights exclusively. See, Section 90 of the Australian Constitution.
The whole NLIS and MLA situation is disguisting. The MLA AGM is at Orange 13 Nov and I will be protesting. e-mail bimbijniven@bigpond.com PH 0263471220. Let me know if you can be there and we will talk about appropriate placards.
I was under the impression the DPI existed to assist farmers and graziers not take them down.
In the U.S. we are fighting a similar system, National Animal Id System (NAIS). Thanks for posting about your experiences with NLIS. our bureaucrats assure us that NLIS is working wonderfully, so we need to hear all the problems with NLIS.
If anyone would like to check out some No NAIS sites and exchange information with us here are a couple links:
No NAIS and
NAIS Stinks
In my opinion, the U.S, Canada, E.U. & Australia are headed towards the same end-game: individually identifying all species of livestock, not just cattle, and requiring mandatory reporting on all their movements at the farmers’ expense. Each is going about it in a slightly different manner.
Best wishes to you, Mr. Blair. Your story is showing up on anti-NAIS sites and in e-mails.
Well Stephen you have upset someone in the NSW junta.
The socialist government has been setting up the animal and soon human micro-chipping to trace all movements. Disease has nothing to do with it. The entire NLIS data base has been totally corrupted from the start and can never be repaired. It will be useless in a disease outbreak.
The next phase of NLIS that a lot of people have forgotten is the already used satellite transponder tags. Hands up those who naively provided the DPI with detailed property plans for whatever spurious reason.
Now the DPI transfers your property internal boundaries, water points and vegetation coverage to their own imagry coming up with something you cant oppose-you gave them the info.
When it becomes compulsory for all cattle and sheep to be tagged with RFIDs the satellite and the DPI will have a field day. You will have greenies and bureaucrats crawling all over your place telling you how to manage it, that you are overstocked, that you have flattened a tree or your fenceline is in the wrong place ad infinitum.
Landcare is largely responsible for this scenario.
Welcome to farming and regulated under-production to assist culling of the world’s population. Remember there are no limits to growth; replace whatever you take out and keep feeding the world profitably.
W Benstead is on the ball.
Landcare is one of the biggest frauds of all time. When will their activities be audited and just how is the success measured.
The number of foxes, rabbits, wild dogs and other vermin seeking refuge in the newly provided habitat. Not to mention the fierceness of future fires.
The NSW Catchment Management Act is a danger to every landholder in the State. A deceitful attempt by big brother to charge yet another rate a catchment management rate enshrined without any consultation of the public within the clauses of the Act.
The new satellite NLIS surveillance will count your stock each month and debit your bank account automatically with some methane emission tax on the pretense it is reducing global warming. Yet another E-Tag like the tolls on the freeways in Melbourne.
Wake up farmers!
Isn’t good when you can write your own slanted side of the story !!!
It would be good if he at-least got the facts right.