Are the QPPHI representing YOU??

If you like many that got excited when the QPPHI Crisis Committee formed thinking that you were finally being represented, you might need to do some investigating and find out the facts! Alarmed at some of the things I have been hearing, people trying to contact the group leader and being told don't ask questions, I decided to send Mr Toft an email. I didn't even get a response so the others were one up on me at least they were acknowledged as not important! I realise this group was formed in a crisis, and have on several occasions congratulated them for their initiative, there is no doubt they have put in a lot of work... but for who? and are they being duped by the DPI or are they duping you?At the end of October they came out guns a blazing, hit the media with 'vaccine for all p&p horses in the red zone'. Directing people to the DPI website for application forms, which were to be sent to your private vets, NOT to the DPI, to my understanding without any prior consultation with the private vets. This created substantial paperwork for vets to collate, transfer the information and submit orders to the DPI. The vets form clearly stated that applicants had to be within the inner buffer of the red zone, yet the QPPHI were telling all those who wanted vaccination in the red zone to apply. I even clarified this with one of the committee members and was told to tell my vet, the vet form was wrong "teething problems" and that EVERYONE in the red zone was eligible! Well done QPPHI / DPI, this was a great way to offside the vets, bog them down with paperwork and jam their phone lines with desperate people wanting to find out if and when they were approved! Two months on and all enquiries I have made around the place, not one application outside the inner buffer has been approved, and every subsequent 'update' from the group sounds more and more like the DPI propaganda! Wake up Qld, the vaccine that was touted as being for the P&P industry is being used to fight the disease down in the disaster zone. Quite rightly, but the fact is the Govt should have been doing THOSE horses as suppression vaccination, they should be protecting all horses the same as NSW did in the Purple and Red Zones. But no... up here they make it sound like we had equal rights, and even managed to palm off the vet costs onto the owners! People are still being rejected for vaccine because the disease is too close to them, they have been waiting for it to arrive for 2 months.
Janine Eades applied for vaccination when the disease was 60klms from her, never got vaccinated and a month later her horses became infected, read her story here http://horsedealsflu.blogspot.com/search?q=Janine+Eades 5 survived and 1 died!!

I started asking around and discovered that many people are dissatisfied with what's going on (or not) and that Rob Setter the DPI Deputy Director General agreed to facilitate a meeting at the DPI office in Ann Street last Friday. Many industry reps from different groups attended, as well as QHC and DPI ILO's. From what I can gather the Deputy Director stated that the QPPHI is NOT a representative of the pleasure and performance industry as a whole, but an industry rep (one of many) and a contact point between industry and Govt. They are a crisis committee only and have no statutory rights to make decisions on behalf of the industry as a whole! I believe there is a forum being held in March, conducted by the DPI, and so far the only group that has the right to speak on the floor on behalf of the pleasure and performance industry are the QPPHI. Scary stuff, given the fact that the instigator of the group doesn't care to have contact with people in the industry that they claim to represent! The QHC, (baby brother to AHIC who have been at the table since day one and done very little to fight for equality in this disaster and who also represent the TB Industry), are now holding a seminar in February and looking for 2 delegates from all clubs, societies, associations etc in the horse industry to attend the seminar so that the QHC has a united voice with which to go the DPI forum in March.So, there you have it, 4 months on and approximately 90-100,000 horses that have been infected (across the two states), and the pleasure and performance industry still have NO UNITED VOICE, nobody is looking after the welfare of our horses, they have tied our hands and prevented us from protecting our horses, yet put us at greater risk now than we were 4 months ago.... More meetings and forums scheduled for 2-3 months time.... more horses to suffer!Time you all found out who is representing you and if they are truly representing you, sounds to me like someone's already thrown the toys out of the cot and all is not as it seems to those on the outside! One thing is for certain, nobody is going to be doing ANYTHING with their horses for at least another 6 months WITHOUT VACCINE or natural immunity from infection. If its good enough for the TB's to have protection (vaccine), their business back up and running and still claim to support the eradication plan then it is good enough for everyone!!Do not under estimate the power of your local members, you may or may not have voted them in, but you certainly pay their wages if you pay taxes... The recent shake up in the DPI was as a result of David Gibson the local member for Gympie who took up the issue with Mike Horan, specifically the permits department which was in a complete disgrace.

Sit back and wait, or get up and do something!

Cindy M ,SE Qld