Latest Updates....or not!!?

It is obvious over the last couple of days, external EI information & updates has slowed down dramatically.

So to try & guage what is happening, I thought I’d phone the National helpline & let you all know what the latest information is on the situation.

There is no longer a National helpline though, you have to type in the number of the state you are calling from then you get directed to that states DPI office.

I just want a general update & lots of people I know have horses too & genuinely want an update of the situation, I started with SA.

Firstly the lady directed me to their website for all info & when I said I don’t have access I was able to get some info.

The permit situation for SA is being discussed in a meeting tonight with managers of PIRSA & the outcome will be known Monday.

I asked if email updates were still being sent because I haven’t received any for a while & she wasn’t sure but said it is presumed that everybody just knows about it now because we are in week 3 of the EI outbreak.

I asked if they are placing ads in Newspapers & the lady said that they ran an ad in The Advertiser for 2 weeks & isn’t sure if that will be continuing but that is all she could tell me because she wasn’t at a level that makes the decisions.

I tried NSW next, thinking that this is the most affected state so should get the most news. Pressed number 1 for NSW & I get "your call is placed in a queue…".

I have options though while I’m on hold, go to their website, hold & speak to an officer or press # to leave a voicemail message, I choose to hold & currently my call is number 2 in the queue....

Yay I’m now number 1...

6 minutes later my call is transferred to an officer. I asked for a general update of the EI situation, this lady only wanted to direct me to the NSW DPI site.

I asked if there are still outbreaks being reported (then she asked if I was from the media) her answer was they are still getting calls reporting new cases but go on the DPI site & they are all listed.

The lady asked if I have access to the internet, I said no & can’t today, she didn’t know what to say then & said well it’s all on our site & there’s a lot of info to go thru, so maybe just ask me a question and I’ll try & answer it.

Is there still a ban on horse movement?
Yes don’t know when it will be looked at.

Can you get email updates sent to you?
No we don’t have that facility, just go onto our site.

For areas that are affected, there is a map available on-line but she did mention a few locations that are affected.

This officer could not tell me anything & just kept directing me to their website, even after I said I didn’t have computer access. Really if you don’t have Internet access you wouldn’t know any information.

This time I pressed 2 for QLD...QLD has nice classical music to listen to while you’re on hold!

4 minutes later a get put thru to an officer where I got the 20 questions
-my name, how you spell it, first & last
-where I’m calling from
-what town I am from & which state is that in
-do I have horses
-do I want to move horses

This lady did try & give you info, even if she was just reading it from their site, at least it was something. She explained that there are 2 zones in QLD now & that South East QLD is the main area affected. Only in emergency situations can horses be moved but in the controlled locations they are starting to give out permit eg- for people mustering but they can only move from one property to another that the same person owns.

Still no horses can be brought into the state & obviously moved out.

They have no idea when the ban will be lifted but she thinks as there are now 2 zones the controlled zone may get lifted soon as they have split it into the zones but they really don’t know at all.

If you go to the DPI QLD site you can register to receive email updates & she directed me thru this process & how to find the website.

After ringing 3 states & not getting very far & taking up a lot of my time, I didn’t think it was necessary to go thru the same scenario & ring another 3 times for TAS, VIC & WA.

If you have some information relating to EI that the rest of Australia would be interested in or would learn from, please put it on this blog!

Thanks,

Jesse