Mulesing vote could change face of Aust wool industry
Posted Wed Nov 19, 2008 9:48pm AEDT
Updated Wed Nov 19, 2008 9:53pm AEDT
The Australian Wool Innovation chairman says the industry will be doomed if the mulesing ban is lifted. (ABC)
A national vote by wool producers is shaping up to be one of the most important elections in the history of the wool industry.
At stake is the industry's commitment to phase-out surgical mulesing, where folds of skin a cut from a sheep's rear to prevent fly and maggot infestation, by 2010.
The current board of the Australian Wool Innovation Limited (AWI) says there will be a devastating backlash by international buyers if wool growers do not stick to the 2010 deadline.
But a group of challengers who want control of the board say they will continue mulesing.
Animal rights activists say it is a cruel practise but wool producers say it is a necessary one to prevent a worse cruelty.
Pressure from animal rights campaigners which included court action forced AWI into a deal agreeing mulesing would be phased out by 2010.
But it is now the deadline that could be phased out if the Australian Wool Growers Association gets its way. Thousands of its members are voting on whether to change the leadership of the AWI.
Time for change
Martin Oppenheimer, the chairman of the Australian Wool Growers Association, says the vote could signal a time of change.
"This could be the end of six years of reign by the McLaughlin and van Rooyen wool leadership of Australian wool innovation, which for many wool growers has been a failed experiment in innovation and fighting animal rights groups over increasing profitability for the wool growers," he said.
Mr Oppenheimer says many wool producers plan to ignore the 2010 deadline set by the current board.
"There's no legislation in the pipeline so that's not going to happen," he said.
"The reality is that the Australian wool industry and wool growers are changing and there's been more change during the last three or four years than we've seen ever before.
"So there is ... an understanding from wool growers that they need to look at natural and genetic alternatives to mulesing.
"Also, the uptake of pain relief when they're mulesing now has been an amazing development in the Australian wool industry."
The pain relief Mr Oppenheimer is talking about is an anaesthetic spray called Tri-Solfen and the woman who invented it, Meredith Sheil, is one of the new candidates trying to get onto the wool board.
Current AWI chairman Brian van Rooyen says that is potentially a conflict of interest.
Doomed industry
He has also told ABC TV's Lateline that the Australian wool industry is doomed if mulesing continues.
"Our customers overseas, all the retailers and brands that are actually responsible for putting Australian merino wool on the shelves of the major retailers, all of them have indicated to us that the industry must meet its commitment to 2010," he said.
Glenys Oogjes, the executive director of Animals Australia, says the wool industry will cause its own ruin if it underestimates the public opposition to mulesing.
"The confidence will be lost the moment there's any decision to go back on the 2010 deadline," she said.
"That 2010 deadline was set way back in 2004 and though there has been plenty of time for people to re-adjust their thinking, search for alternatives as they have, trial those alternatives which they're doing right now.
"So we don't see why the 2010 deadline should not stay.
"Farmers really need to be on notice that if they continue to do the mulesing operation; produce wool from mulesed sheep, then there'll be a commercial and community backlash."
The result of the ballot will be known at the end of today's AWI's annual general meeting in Perth, and both sides are expecting a very close result.
Adapted from a report by Paula Kruger for PM, November 19.