Dubbo Regional Council decide to operate and manage Dubbo Regional Livestock Markets
A regional council have decided the fate of one of the biggest saleyards in the country following months of a controversial debate. Here’s the latest.
Dubbo News
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Regional livestock agents and producers across the state have expressed their joy following the long-awaited decision in regard to the management of one of the largest saleyards in the country.
Dubbo Regional Council determined that the ownership and operation model for the Dubbo Regional Livestock Markets will be internal, with the “modified status quo” option chosen to ensure more competition and compliance with the current legislative environment.
About 250 livestock agents, producers and supporters fronted Thursday night’s council meeting at Dubbo Regional Theatre and Convention Centre to demonstrate their support for the saleyards to remain under council’s management.
The three options available were to either sell, lease or a modified status quo.
Dubbo Stock and Station Agent president Martin Simmonds told this publication he was “very relieved” when he heard the outcome on Thursday night.
“I think it came down to people power, we showed up last night in numbers to prove to the councillors that what was in front of them was extremely important,” Mr Simmonds said.
“We are very keen to work with them [council] to get the operational model modified so we can all move on and get on with business.”
Dubbo mayor Mathew Dickerson said after years of discussion and debate, councillors had made the decision to retain the markets under council management.
However, there would be some significant financial and legal changes.
Council will take responsibility for activities consistent with the operation at the Forbes Shire Council livestock Markets, including running the scale house operation, ownership of the data from receival of stock through their departure and running the draw.
Changes will also include an increase to the fees for the animals to gain an additional $1 million in revenue – cattle will be increase by 32.5 per cent to $16 per head, while sheep increase by 27.4 per cent to $2 per head.
“We believe that one of the important parts of these changes is to promote more competition, promote more agents – we want to see more throughput – the community told us quite clearly that more throughput and more injection into the economy is an important part of the process,” Mr Dickerson said.
As council hopes to see an increase in the number of agents, the agent permit fee would be reduced from $12,687 to a $200 annual fee.
“We believe that [the fee decrease] lowers the barrier for entry for agents and we’d love to see more agents using our saleyards, our public facility,” Mr Dickerson said.
“I think overall, this is a great decision for the community.
“The agents and producers made it pretty clear that they still wanted to make sure that council owned the facility so getting a process where we still own the facility, we will run the process, but the community won’t be subsidising that is, I think, it’s the overall best outcome.”
Council will collaborate with the Dubbo Stock and Station Agents to deliver the modified status quo over the next six months, however fees will increase from July 1.
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