Council tight-lipped on Saleyards lease

By Jeremy Sollars

The Southern Downs Regional Council has refused to release minutes of closed-door meetings of its Saleyards Advisory Committee to the Free Times following a Right To Information (RTI) application.
The Free Times sought to obtain minutes of meetings of the committee held in confidential sessions in March and May and a meeting understood to have been held in late June, following the announcement by the council earlier this year that it would seek Expressions of Interest (EOIs) for the leasing out of the Warwick Saleyards to a private operator.
The EOIs closed on Friday 14 July, and the council is yet to release details of the EOIs received and a timeframe in which a decision on the EOIs will be made.
As previously reported in the Free Times, the Saleyards Advisory Committee first met in December last year, when it discussed the leasing option, along with the potential demolition of the Warwick Saleyards and the building of a new $15 million facility nearby.
But the only minutes which have been publicly released to date are those of the December meeting, prompting many rural producers and others in the community to question the transparency of discussions relating to the future of the Warwick Saleyards.
In our RTI application the Free Times asked the council to release the minutes of the confidential Saleyards Advisory Committee meetings, along with information relating to the current composition of the committee.
The only information the council would release were copies of a number of emails from 2016 when the Saleyards Advisory Committee and other similar committees were being formed, with the emails relating to the interest or otherwise of potential members in joining the committee.
Names of recipients of the emails were blacked out, with the only other documents released to the Free Times being the committee’s terms of reference, and the minutes of the original December meeting, both of which are already publicly available on the council’s website.
The December meeting was made up of Deputy Mayor Jo McNally, Cr Rod Kelly, Les Fraser of Frasers Livestock Transport, former Saleyards management committee chair Graham Kirkland, Andrew Williams of Elders and David McIvor of McDougall and Sons.
It is unknown which of these members remain current due to the later minutes having been suppressed, but the May council general meeting minutes noted that Blake Doro had been invited to join the Saleyards Advisory Committee, which replaced the former saleyards management committee.
The minutes of the December meeting revealed that committee member Les Fraser proposed to the committee “the demolition of the current facilities and rebuilding of the site as per the Forbes and Parkes saleyards (in NSW)”.
Mr Fraser told the meeting there would be enough business in the area to support such a move and that the current saleyards are inadequate to cope with a forecast increase in livestock sales in Warwick.
The minutes then detail that council chief executive officer David Keenan asked Mr Fraser about the “proposed location of the new facility”, to which Mr Fraser replied there was “a suitable parcel of land adjacent to Frasers Transport Depot”.
It is understood Mr Fraser was referring to the 80-acre former Warwick Enterprise Park on the Old Stanthorpe Road which Frasers Livestock Transport purchased earlier this year for an undisclosed sum from BWC Developments.
Mr Fraser told the committee that throughput at a new and bigger saleyards could be 2500 head of cattle and sheep a week, as well as goats, which are a growing domestic and overseas market.
Mixed reaction to Saleyards proposal
Reaction to the announcement in May that EOIs would be called for outside management of the Warwick Saleyards has been mixed, with many producers left asking why this option would be explored if the Saleyards turn an annual profit.
Many are also concerned that an external private operator could increase selling costs for cattle and sheep, which could drive producers to online livestock sales which are growing in popularity.
The Free Times has previously asked the council for details of the Warwick Saleyards annual profit, but these details are yet to be provided.
Cr Rod Kelly has previously stated that while the saleyards deliver a return to council, the return needs to be considered in the “broader context of the need to continually upgrade the infrastructure at the facility”.
The council has $75,000 set aside in the budget for 2017-2018 for an upgrade to cattle pens at the Saleyards, and in total the council has forward funding allocated for Saleyards upgrades over the next decade of $1.3 million.
An addendum document added to the online tender documents on Tuesday 4 July outlined additional information asked for by potential lessees, including extra details about the livestock holding capacity of the Warwick Saleyards, council staff numbers, future growth projections, electricity and water usage and wet weather issues.
The addendum states electricity costs of the Saleyards are $22,000 per year and $30,500 for water.
The council has previously stated the Saleyards are “not for sale” and that the EOI process is not binding and that the Saleyards would continue to be council-run if a suitable lease offer is not identified.