BEEF imports from countries which have had bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, will not be subject to the usual import risk assessments when import bans are eased next month.
And the beef industry will have no say on the protocols which will set the new rules for importing beef to Australia.
This is despite industry leaders believing they would be involved in developing the protocols when the controversial decision to lift the ban was announced in October last year.
In a series of bombshell admissions from Government bureaucrats at two Senate hearings in the past week, it is now also apparent that Australia will not be demanding livestock traceability or animal identification as a pre-requisite for those countries applying to send beef to Australia, prompting calls of "double standards" from local cattle groups.
It was confirmed in Friday's hearing that the methodologies for the import protocols would be developed by Australia and New Zealand's food safety department in relation to human health and safety only and without beef industry input, and the protocols won't be made public until March 1 – the day the restrictions are officially lifted.
The Government's own Biosecurity Australia website says an import risk analysis (IRA) is required where there is no quarantine policy "or a significant change in existing quarantine policy is to be considered".
Beef industry leaders are demanding urgent meetings with Agriculture Minister Tony Burke and want the matter resolved, complete with confirmation of an IRA and traceability requirements, by the end of this week.
Chairing an inquiry into the impacts of the controversial October decision, NSW Nationals Senator Fiona Nash said with no import risk analysis "there were no checks and balances to ensure the protocols would be right".
"The department will come up with the protocols. There will be no opportunity whatsoever for any parliamentary oversight to determine if those protocols are appropriate and there will be no opportunity whatsoever for industry itself to determine whether they think the protocols are appropriate," Senator Nash said, to which officers from the Department of Health and Aging answered "correct".
"In essence the departments involved in this process are saying to the Australian public 'just trust us'," Senator Nash said.
DAFF senior manager, Dr Andrew Cupit, said there were beef import arrangements in place for many years before bans were introduced in response to BSE, negating the need for a new IRA, although he admitted BSE was a new factor this time round.
"Because the science has been re-evaluated and we are now re-establishing trade… therefore it's quite different to pig meat which was allowed it to come in for the first time."
The confirmation has come as a shock to beef industry leaders who were under the impression they would be involved in the development of new import protocols.
Cattle Council of Australia president and North Queensland cattleman, Greg Brown said he was "horrified" to hear there would be no IRA.
He said the industry would insist on involvement in drawing up protocols and traceability would be paramount in those demands.
"To not insist on traceability or ID is a double standard as far as our industry is concerned and something we don't agree with," Mr Brown said.
"We've put a lot of effort and money into the development of our industry trace-back and to allow people in with lower standards is in my opinion ludicrous."
Mr Brown said no IRA was unfair given the "problems" and publicity the issue had generated.
"We know there's a low risk of BSE entering the country but we need to be confident we have a process that ensures that risk is as low as we can possibly make it.
"We're disturbed that we won't be able to look at the protocols before they're on the web.
"The industry has been sidelined – it's been convenient for the Government to talk to us some times, and inconvenient at others."
Minister for Agriculture, Tony Burke, said there would be "rigorous" risk assessments, but these would be done only in the fields of food safety, not quarantine.
He said the decision not to undertake an import risk analysis process "had been made by the director of quarantine, and was not a ministerial call".
Mr Burke said the reason for the change of policy was because the health grounds of the original ban no longer matched the current science on BSE.
He did not agree on the need to insist on livestock traceability from importing countries, arguing NLIS was more about giving Australian producers a leg-up in international markets.
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