ARB adamant on EI stance

LAUNCESTON - The Australian Racing Board (ARB) will vigorously continue representations to the federal government opposing any attempt to impose the costs of the equine influenza outbreak on horse owners.
It is estimated that those costs will be in excess of $100million.
"We believe that it would be fundamentally inappropriate and inequitable for the horse industry to bear the costs of mounting a response to a disease outbreak in circumstances where it had been established that the Commonwealth did not maintain an adequate set of measures to protect the horse population from that outbreak occurring," ARB chairman Bob Pearson said.
"The findings that are ultimately made by the current inquiry being conducted by Ian Callinan are likely to provide a factual basis upon which to make such an assessment in this case."
The ARB, which met in Launceston on Tuesday, said it was also keen to correct the misunderstanding that the government was proposing to recover the costs of the CHAPS scheme of financial assistance.
"The CHAPS scheme established by the former government and continued by the Rudd government does not involve any proposal to recover these monies from the industry. We once again we thank the minister, the Hon Tony Bourke, for the extension of this scheme," Pearson said.