Federal minister Bridget McKenzie says she has asked state government what happened to reports from the Meramist abattoir in Caboolture

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

A federal government vet stationed at Meramist abattoir in Queensland made nine animal welfare reports about the condition of horses slaughtered for export before the Queensland government launched an inquiry.

Queensland’s agriculture minister, Mark Furner, launched an inquiry into the Caboolture abattoir on Tuesday in response to a report on the ABC which showed horses being hit and shocked with electric cattle prods.

Speaking in Senate estimates on Tuesday night, the federal agriculture minister, Bridget McKenzie, said she had written to Furner after the 7.30 program to ask what had become of the vet’s reports.

She had not watched the program in full, she said, but had watched some footage and “received extensive reports on it”.

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“I would hate for anyone who is listening to think that I have not taken my responsibilities seriously,” McKenzie said in response to questions from the Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi. “I actually wrote to Minister Furner from Queensland reminding him of the eight reports our officer had made to the Queensland department and requesting an understanding of what had been done on those reports.

“I am still waiting to hear back from Minister Furner. So to suggest or intimate that I and my department aren’t serious about dealing with this issue would be completely misrepresenting this issue.”

The ninth report, McKenzie said later, came after she wrote to Furner on Friday. All nine were made this year. All the reports related to the condition of horses upon arrival at the abattoir.

Neither the vet employed by the federal Department of Agriculture, who is required to be at the facility, nor the animal welfare officer employed by Meramist to comply with EU animal welfare conditions reported concerns about the treatment of the horses by abattoir staff or issues with slaughter.

“They were all in relation to the state of the animals as they arrived at the abattoir, either due to emaciated animals and animals being injured, either prior to being loaded on the trucks or on the trucks,” said the department’s assistant secretary for meat exports, Barbara Cooper.

Cooper said the department had conducted a critical incident review into the practices revealed by the ABC footage, and would decide whether to impose sanctions or suspend Meramist’s export licence.

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Faruqi suggested that the system of having a department vet and an animal welfare officer in place was not working “if we have an animal welfare officer present and under whose eyes it was happening”.

Animal welfare issues in the horse racing industry will be on the agenda at a meeting of state and territory agriculture ministers on Friday.

Faruqi urged McKenzie to put forward a proposal for a national horse traceability register, which is being examined by a Senate committee, but McKenzie said she was attending the meeting to listen.

“If racing ministers in this country don’t want there to be a national racing register then it’s not going to happen,” McKenzie said.

Horses slaughtered at Meramist are exported to Europe for human consumption, and the facility must meet EU animal welfare standards.

The deputy secretary of the agriculture department, Malcolm Thompson, said the Australian councillor in Brussels had been notified of the footage aired last week and that Australia would inform its trading partners.