Coonabarabran Department Of Agriculture Livestock Officer

Mr SLACK-SMITH (Barwon) [4.45 p.m.]: Madam Acting-Speaker, I congratulate you on your elevation to your high office. I raise a matter which is of concern to farmers in the Coonabarabran area in the north-west of New South Wales. Coonabarabran, an extremely productive area, which encompasses 1.1 million hectares, comprises mainly mixed farming - cattle for beef and sheep for fat lambs and wool. Latest rural land protection board figures reflect that there are 168,000 head of cattle in the Coonabarabran area and three-quarters of a million sheep. Coonabarabran is about to lose its livestock officer. The job of the livestock officer in this area is to provide technical knowledge, advice, and technical information in relation to animal health, animal husbandry and animal production. Mr Paul Carberry, the departmental officer who has been stationed in Coonabarabran for a while and who has been active in the sheep wool and beef cattle industry, is about to move to Tamworth.

The Department of Agriculture in Coonabarabran will be left with an agronomist, a field assistant and a secretary. The closest livestock officer will be located in Dubbo, Tamworth or Mudgee, which are approximately two to three hours drive from Coonabarabran. It would take a livestock officer two to three hours to drive from one of those places to Coonabarabran - a total of six hours of totally unproductive time which could be better spent. It would be far more beneficial if the Department of Agriculture employed a livestock officer in the Coonabarabran area rather than requesting an officer to drive so many miles from one of the areas I have mentioned. I ask the Minister for Agriculture to consider favourably my request. Coonabarabran, an important area in the north-west of New South Wales, would benefit from the services of a livestock officer.