Over 1000 Petitioners Call for Small Egg Producers Regulations Change

The Minister for Primary Industries, Jeremy Rockliff, must listen to the 1, 049 signatories to a smallholder egg producers petition calling for a change to the labelling of backyard eggs regulations, Greens Leader and Primary Industries spokesperson, Kim Booth MP, said today.

“Changes made in 2013 to Tasmanian Primary Produce Safety (Egg) Regulations have had adverse ramifications on small backyard egg producers, requiring them to stamp each and every egg should they wish to gift or to sell at harvest markets and like,” Mr Booth said.

“Likewise, fees imposed on smallholders with more than 20 chooks have seen the production and sale of those eggs become almost impossible for some and there are many small producers round the State who have simply been pushed out of the market by overregulation and unreasonable fees.”

“The Liberal Party went to the state election with a promise to reduce overregulation and here they are imposing their own brand of ‘blue tape’, yet again on those who need the leeway the most.”

“The Minister needs to sit up and take note of the 1,049 petitioners who have lobbied his Department, through my office, to have these Regulations amended to ensure unnecessary restrictions and fees are not imposed on what is a clean and sustainable way of supplementing income for small primary producers,” Mr Booth said.

Mr Booth has tabled both an electronic and hard-copy paper petition in the House totalling 1, 049 petitioners calling for the House to:

• Acknowledge the contribution of smallholder food producers to Tasmania’s regional and state economies.
• Acknowledge that the primary goal of small farm businesses is to be financially viable whilst providing nutritious and, above all, safe food to their customers
• Recognise that poultry are an integral part of many smallholders’ production systems, cleaning up pests and weeds and producing fertiliser, as well as providing income from the selling of eggs and birds
• Ensure that the small egg enterprises are nurtured by an administration which has an interest in their success and works with them to ensure compliance and appropriate management of food safety issues

• Amend the Tasmanian Primary Produce Safety (Egg) Regulations to:
o Recognise the capacity of smallholders to achieve compliance in a cost effective manner, by creating a charter that producers can fill in with a checklist of risks involved with the small scale production, handling and sale of eggs and clear guidelines on how these can be implemented. We request that this charter be based on the Victorian egg safety regulations for small producers
o Amend the definition of an ‘egg laying bird’ to allow for breeding stock, retired birds and family pets.
Kim Booth MP | Greens Leader