As the peak body for the livestock transport industry in Australia the Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association (ALRTA) is committed to driving continuous improvement to Animal Welfare Standards.
Driver and animal welfare continues to be a principal issue for the ALRTA and its members, writes Executive Director Rachel Smith.
As the peak national body for livestock transporters, we are working with parties across the meat supply chain to bring about proactive measures to continuously improve standards within the industry.
Recently, ALRTA attended the National Animal Welfare Roundtable, here in Canberra with 27 representatives from across the meat supply chain including producers, transporters, regulators, processors and saleyards and renewed our commitment to working collaboratively to support a safe and sustainable meat industry in Australia.
Critical topics discussed were the need for best practice facilities that support operator and animal welfare including loading ramps, commitment to animal welfare standards and ensuring animals are fit to load and loading densities are adhered to.
From our perspective it was heartening to be included, as transporters play a critical role to move stock from producers, saleyards and feedlots to processors.
ALRTA has committed to hosting the next meeting in 2025 and in the interim has committed to:
- Advocating for the harmonisation of the application of legislation and regulation nationally pertaining to standards, welfare and transport
- Investing in training of drivers and operators to ensure the safety and welfare of both drivers and animals
- Working alongside regulators to uphold Australia’s high standards of animal welfare, including addressing unsafe behaviour exhibited by a minority of activists
- And continuing to develop alongside other parties in the supply chain a transport hub, which is a will be a one stop knowledge shop for everything pertaining to livestock transport, MLA (Meat and Livestock Australia) Transport Hub.
The MLA Transport Hub is being launched in Toowoomba as part of LRTAQ ALRTA Conference in March. This is an exciting initiative and demonstrates the power of working collaboratively across the supply chain to proactively address driver and animal health and welfare concerns.
ALRTA is also working closely with TruckSafe, NTI and other key stakeholders to develop a livestock transport accreditation module that will continue to support our members in the critical work that they do.
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