EI Levy

Once again the government shows how out of touch they are with the horse industry in general. It is unbelievable that through their mismanagement of quarantine they are attempting to shift the cost onto your general recreational horse owner who in many instances received none of the assistance that was so hastily and inequitably distributed. In Australia the general recreational horse owner is not the wealthy hunting aristocrat as portrayed by books and movies. It consists of middle to low income earners, plain old mums and dads with a horse mad kid at pony club or riding adults that are your everyday wage earner who has a passion for horses and who struggle to support their horses in a world of rising feed costs, agistment costs, insurance costs, petrol costs and so it goes on. Australia is unique in the way we have opportunity for most people to have access to activities like horseriding.This has been diminished over the last 10 years and will be further diminished through the EI levy. I believe this will be the final straw and people will oppose this Levy. The government let the bug in so the government should wear the cost. Maybe then they will be a little more careful in their quality control processes.

Scott