Four Corners Tonight - A Bloody Business

[Sir Stinkalot]

I have just finished watching the Four Corners story - A Bloody Business, to quote their website ..... "An explosive exposé of the cruelty inflicted on Australian cattle exported to the slaughterhouses of Indonesia."

Certainly some of the most disturbing tv I have seen in some time and it was enough to make me feel sick. Certainly not for the faint of heart. Whilst I am fully aware that animals need to be slaughtered for food and that it is all part of life, surely there is a responsibility as humans to ensure that this is undertaken as humanely as possible.

Whilst there will be arguments that animals do not have the same emotional feelings as humans (this is arguable), there would be no doubt that they can still feel pain and some of the actions undertaken in the slaughterhouses was unwatchable. It was disturbing to think of these people who where basically going out of their way to inflict further pain on these animals. I'm not saying that the work would be easy and it is certainly something that I couldn't do myself, but there are some sick minds who can disregard the obvious distress and pain that these animals go through, some of it inflicted outside the act of slaughtering.

Before I get flamed let me repeat ..... I know animals need to be killed for food and it is all part of mother natures bigger plan, but my point is why not use the most humane methods available.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the media in the following days and if there is any action taken. I am sure that the news and papers will be more interested in Shane Warne's weight loss, Ben Cousins becoming a father and Dannii Minogue / Kris Smith looking for publicity on Twitter.

According to the report they key players have been aware of this for 10 years and don't seem to interested in finding a solution to the problem. On Q&A they said that they were going to start and inquiry, but what does that really do?? The Four Corners site has links to media coverage which mentions that ..... "The Australian livestock export industry has moved to suspend supply of cattle to three Indonesian abattoirs after evidence of animal cruelty was identified". Will this be for good or just until the story blows over?

If you are interested it can be viewed on ABC's I-View for the next two weeks:
ABC iview (http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/view/775504)

Sorry for posting if you are not interested but I think it is an issue that will go under the radar unless it is spoken about.

Stinky.

[.RC.]

The story was mostly written to pull at the emotions of the average Australian. You just had to listen to the choice of words used, the background music used.

We do not know how factual the footage was in regards to how widespread this barbaric practice is.. A report simply saying something does not mean it is true.

I am not going to deny the footage was gruesome and barbaric to our standards but is banning the trade going to stop the barbarity, or is it only going to make us feel good about ourselves. All the while the barbarity continues but just not Australian cattle..

[Sebastiaan56]

Of course if it only happened in Indonesian slaughterhouses we could be outraged. The facts are it happens everywhere. This kind of abuse has been documented in the Middle East and in the US but Im sure its widespread. If you have the stomach for it go to You Tube. Look up videos by PETA. Indonesians are no better or worse than the rest of humanity. That this comes as a shocking surprise to everyone just shows how well it has been kept from the public eye.

I will challenge you on the animals as food grand plan Stinky, Read "The China Study" by T. Colin Campbell and look up the work of Caldwell Esselstyn or Dr MacDougall. Nutritionally we are better off without consuming animals or their secretions.

There is also a growing body of work on animal intelligence and social systems. When this goes mainstream it will make the climate debate look insignificant. Consuming animals will be seen for the cannibalism that it is. I think that debate is still five years away.

[Greg Ward]

We run a few hundred head of cattle and I have enough emotional turmoil sending them to the saleyard. I however do get some relief from knowing that (hopefully) their death should be speedy, because in the wild it is often not.

In the dry winter months last year, we lost around 6 head, weak and old which had to be put down, and the period leading to their deaths in the cold was not pleasant.

It is an unfortunate fact that there is no 'easy' death for any animal, they are often eaten alive by preditors, fall to disease or starvation or childbirth or injury..

Anyone who states a belief in any God as a merciful diety hasn't a clue

And even with animals in our care, death can be awful, I've seen cows in drought with their eyes picked out by crows as they lay dying and let's never forget the sufferinmg of those caught in floods or bushfires.

There is no need for all the claptrap about sentient beings and animal feelings, they feel terror and NEVER should be subject to the treatment I saw on the ABC.
Forget about whether they were beating it up, the photos don't lie.

This was unnecessary and crual treatment of animals in our care and any farmers or wholesalers sending their livestock to this death need to be ostracised and even banned from the industry.
Greg

[Sir Stinkalot]

The story was mostly written to pull at the emotions of the average Australian. You just had to listen to the choice of words used, the background music used. All the while the barbarity continues but just not Australian cattle..

Yes I would agree that the show was targeted to pull on the emotions of the average Australian and to be honest I didn't really notice the background music but even if you put on the soundtrack of Australias Funniest Home Videos the footage would still be the same. The show did seem to cast the Australian farmer in the best possible light with the problem lying at the feet of the Indonesians and the Australia's livestock export industry. If that is 100% accurate who knows, but the livestock export industry spokesperson didn't really seem to be able to justify the footage, just saying that things are improving and it will be a long process (10 years so far).

I don't think that the problem is just with Australian cattle but it is something that Australia as the exporter has some control over. The program stated that Australian cattle were larger and more difficult to control, it wasn't made clear how much more humane the same practices were on smaller animals but at the end of the day once they are restrained I would think the issue with cutting the throat would still be similar. It was also stated that the meat from the Australian cattle was preferred so if supply was stopped it may implement change.

The program was keen to show the footage of the cattle being stunned as the more humane method, however it didn't choose to show the footage of the animal being killed after being stunned, just the action of the stunning and the cutting up of the animal following. I am sure the footage of a stunned animal having its throat cut would still have been disturbing footage, although perhaps not as disturbing as the other methods. This could be seen as one example of the program distorting the truth to focus on its point.


The facts are it happens everywhere. This kind of abuse has been documented in the Middle East and in the US but Im sure its widespread.

Sebastiaan, it sounds like you are well up on these issues. It may happen everywhere but that doesn't mean that it should be accepted and the change has to start somewhere. You may be right that consuming animals will be seen for the cannibalism that it is further down the track but as it currently stands if the population wants to eat meat then best practices should be put in place and continue to operate. The Four Corners program only covered this one issue however there will obviously be far more that go unnoticed unless bought to the attention of the general public. The key issue is that the people behind these practices are all in the know of what goes on and it is not until the mum and dad type, who last nights program was aimed towards, are made aware that the discussions start. The program may use emotion to get the message across and perhaps isn't as unbiased as reporting should be, but at the least it can generate further discussion.

[Waldo]

It wasn't touched on in the report, but mentioned prior that Wilkie and the other bloke want to stop live exports - why?

It's not the fault of the farmers.

You probably will never change anyone's religious beliefs regarding slaughter practices, no matter how horrid they are. The violently shaking cow near the end of the programme, for me at least was more violent than footage of other cows being slaughtered.

It's a $300M export industry, you cannot pull that out from underneath our farmers feet.

[Sir Stinkalot]

From the program it would indicate that the Australian farmer has not done anything wrong and they have great respect for their stock and understand the importance of care to deliver a quality product. If this is true across the board then that should be applauded. Even the live shipping seems to have improved. Again hopefully this is the truth and again should be applauded. On the other hand perhaps the program was intentionally trying to create the view of the good Australian farmer, shipping company, feed lot man against the bad live export industry and Indonesian slaughterhouses.

The program indicated that there were slaughterhouses in Indonesia that did undertake methods to humanely undertake the slaughter. Perhaps the solution is to only send Australian cattle to such slaughterhouses, which would force the other slaughterhouses to come up to speed or miss out.

I don't think anybody wants to pull that out from underneath our farmers feet but there must be a better approach. It is all part of a chain and it cant be as easy as just washing your hands of the issue once you have passed the product on. The preference was for locally slaughtered animals due to lack of refrigeration. Is there not something that can be improved on in this aspect? Why not set up Australian run slaughterhouses in Indonesia (staffed by Indonesians), it seems to have worked for the Australian feed lot guy.

Whilst I do not want to get into an argument in relation to religion and beliefs but who is to say that the slaughter practices outlined in any religious guidebook were not the most humane methods available at that time. Perhaps at the time a single slit of the throat was more humane than the previous method of continually hitting an animal with a stick and as such it was written that it was the preferred method. Could it be thought that the intention was to kill the animal in the most humane method possible known at the time ..... which seems to have moved on with technology.

From looking at the program the final moments of the death are only one part of the practice ..... there is the animal abuse leading up to that moment including the torment of animals, having them bash their heads on the concrete numerous times whist being restrained, being bashed, tails being broken and the footage at the end of the program mentioned by Waldo.

The sad thing is that during all of the abuse the animals were helpless and had no opportunity to fight back from the abuse. Everything was set up to make it difficult for the animal and the worse that they were treated the level of abuse was simply ramped up. This also wasn't a hidden camera investigation, it was very clear that they were being filmed and if this is how they act with cameras rolling you can only shudder to think what they do without them.

I am sure that a charging or kicking animal would be a very dangerous situation however I didn't see one instance where the people were at risk of their own safety and they had to employ such methods to ensure their safety. These animals just appeared to be frightened and most of the issues seemed to be as a direct response to how they were treated.

Looking at the Four Corners website it would appear that the story was leaked before last night. This would have given the opportunity for the government to announce an inquiry immediately following on Q&A. There was also news reports from late last week which must have resulted from the industry preparing for damage control. Even with all of this exposure it still doesn't seem to have created any waves and will most likely go away ...... after all the mainstream news is too busy giving us cutting edge articles about the PM talking with a red head school girl.

[Waldo]

Agree with everything you wrote. :2tsup:

Got kicked by a cow while I was trying to herd it into a race recently (it tripped and as it did it collected me on the side of the knee) bugger it hurt, but I only cursed at the animal. :2tsup: ... well apart from giving it a tap with a piece of ag pipe. :shrug:

Australian run slaughter houses could be the way to go, but I think the problem goes deeper to maintaining consistent standards.

[Sebastiaan56]

Looking at the Four Corners website it would appear that the story was leaked before last night. This would have given the opportunity for the government to announce an inquiry immediately following on Q&A. There was also news reports from late last week which must have resulted from the industry preparing for damage control. Even with all of this exposure it still doesn't seem to have created any waves and will most likely go away ...... after all the mainstream news is too busy giving us cutting edge articles about the PM talking with a red head school girl.

Exports to the three slaughterhouses mentioned were stopped last week to limit the damage and yes they have had plenty of time to prepare the necessary spin.

[artme]

As an ex cattle raiser What I saw last night apalled me. I had seen footage previously of the mis treatment of cattle in Egypt and that also apalled me.

You could turn the sound down completely and not remain unaffected by the scenes presented!!:no:

It is time for farmers and government to act swiftly and decisivly on this matter. Nothing more needs to be said.

[jimbur]

What a cock-up of a species we are. I often think that the only thing we are really good at is self-justification and sticking our heads in a bucket of sand.
Let's hope we are the pinnacle and final peak of evolution or else it will be more than 'cows with guns' after us.
Cheers,
Jim

[artme]

Well said Jim!!:clap::clap::clap:

It is nothing short of distressing to read comments that apparently wish to justify the treatment shown on the grounds that it "happens here, there and elsewhere.

There is no justification for the maltreatment of humans or other animals.

Perhaps we are still hung up on the religious thinking that man has dominion over animals and this is somehow interpreted to mean that we can either do with them as we lease, or not worry about what others do.

I can only trust that the meat I buy has come from animals that have been raised and treated ethically , and slaughtered humanely.

I only buy free range eggs.This is a decision I reached many years ago after taking a group of school students to an intensive egg farming business. I was, to say the least, shocked and many of the students were quite distressed.

[.RC.]

Why is everyone believing that that what was shown on 4 corners was representative of the Indonesian live export industry?

With 600 000 head exported to Indo every year, that is 1600 to be processed a day and the filming we are told took a month, so that is another 48 000 processed during the filming time.. Could you see those places processing 1600 head a day?

I would imagine the reality to be that these are selected backyard operations and not the main facilities where animals are processed, probably due to the fact the main facilities are processing the animals to much better standards and it would not make a story..

[Waldo]

Don't misconstrue anything I wrote to infer an excuse of any party for reasons for mistreatment.

Also, on the other side of the coin, what RC has written may also be the case.

[Sir Stinkalot]

I would imagine the reality to be that these are selected backyard operations and not the main facilities where animals are processed, probably due to the fact the main facilities are processing the animals to much better standards and it would not make a story..

The facilities shown are those who have the support and training provided by the Meat & Livestock Australia. They have supplied the box designed to make a cattle fall down and whilst this does seem more effective than the older rope methods shown it still doesn't seem to be the best solution and still leaves the animal in plenty of distress.

The show didn't provide sufficient information to determine how wide spread that the abuse is. The mentioned that there are over 100 slaughter houses and I am sure that there are some that are nowhere near as bad as what was shown. The bad thing is that the ones shown had training provided by the Australian industry only a month or so before the footage. There must be something wrong with the training. The other disturbing thing is the industry didn't seem to think that there was anything wrong and this was enforced during the recent review which was positive.

It could be as simple as not supplying to slaughter houses who do not meet the relevant standards but given that the houses shown in the footage included houses that passed the recent review how can the industry be trusted to determine which slaughter houses should be supplied.

[.RC.]

how can the industry be trusted to determine which slaughter houses should be supplied.

Sack the MLA board... Would make a lot of producers happy...

[artme]

I'm not in any way religious but the only expression I can muster to express my utter dismay at some of the comments in this whole saga is "Saints Protect us!"

It does not matter if the filming took a month, a day, whatever.

It does not matter if this disgraceful treatment is "in accordance with local customs.

One example of this despicable treatment is more than enough!

In many ways it reminds me of Ernest Hemingway's defence of bullfighting.

I can only sit and shake my head in wonder>

[Master Splinter]

Ahhhh, religion...justifying all sorts of inhumanity for the last several thousand years!

[.RC.]

One example of this despicable treatment is more than enough!



Is whinging and bitching about how disgraceful it is going to fix the problem?

One thing I have really noticed about this is 99% offer nothing constructive they just bitch and complain and moan... They just say "BAN IT ALL" as if that is somehow going to magically fix the problem..

And that description includes our elected representatives who are just as emotionally driven and quite irrational..

At least the Ag minister seems to have some sense and has not banned the trade, rather opting for the investigation approach.. Trying to ascertain firstly if this is a widespread practice or a practice only occuring at a few abattoirs... Also if Livecorp and MLA knew about it and turned a blind eye to it...

The other thing is if Animals Australia thought this was so bad and horrific, why did they not go to the government straight away with all the footage they obtained?

Events like this show who a true leader is..

[kiwigeo]

The story was mostly written to pull at the emotions of the average Australian. You just had to listen to the choice of words used, the background music used.

We do not know how factual the footage was in regards to how widespread this barbaric practice is.. A report simply saying something does not mean it is true.



So you think it was all staged then?

You could run the footage minus music and sound track of any sort and it would still pull at the emotions of the average Australian.

[jimbur]

Ah, so we shoot the messenger do we?
The strength of emotion displayed is, to me, a good sign. It shows that we are not yet completely desensitised to unnecessary suffering.
One argument I saw today was that so many are starving in indonesia that they wouldn't be able to afford beef killed expensively in Australia. I don't know if they meant to imply that the animals' suffering was necessary so that the poor could be fed but that's how I read it.
One thing I agree with is that the MLA have a good many questions to answer.
Cheers,
Jim

[Sir Stinkalot]

Is whinging and bitching about how disgraceful it is going to fix the problem?

One thing I have really noticed about this is 99% offer nothing constructive they just bitch and complain and moan... They just say "BAN IT ALL" as if that is somehow going to magically fix the problem.

.RC ,

I think you have some relevant points. Personally I think the "Ban it all" approach is simply the magical fix to make the publicity go away for a while so they can simply bring it back in a few months without anything changing.

The problem appears to be that MLA, Livecorp and the Government (who also contribute to the provision of boxes) have known about this issues for years and their response is that it is a slow process getting it right and its all down to the training. If they have been going through the process for 10 years already it doesn't seem to be doing anything.

If there are slaughter houses in Indonesia who are working to best practice (which the Four Corners report seemed to indicate that there were) then they should continue to be supplied. There is no reason to punish the Australian Farmer, transport company, feed lot, everybody else in the chain if it can be demonstrated it is all working according to best practice. As I said earlier the slaughter houses shown in the report are not the three or four backyard operations, they are the slaughter houses receiving the training, support and equipment from MLA, Livecorp and the Government.

The key issue is that the killing of the animal is never going to make for comfortable viewing. This will be why they didn't show the killing of the stunned animal. The bigger issue is the treatment and abuse of the animal leading up to the act of killing. Breaking a tail, stomping on an animals head, allowing it to bash its head against the concrete, having one animal run over the top of another animal who was too tormented to move, providing an environment where the animal is constantly slipping and making them try and walk on a broken leg, sticking a runing hose up an animals nose to make it move, eye gauging, having an animal hear and watch four other animals being killed in front of it ....... these are all shocking issues that have nothing to do with the act of killing and seemed to be accepted by MLA and Livecorp. This is not acceptable.

Animals Australia had no option but to go public with the footage. The Government know what is going on and have done nothing about it because to the public it isn't an issue. The investigation should also focus on who in the Government knew and why they needed to be shamed by Animals Australia in a public forum before they thought it worth while acting on the issue.

Stinky.

[jimbur]

To put things into perspective, Indonesia assembles cars for many of the big manufacturers. How can they competently do that and yet need so long to learn how to run a slaughterhouse on modern lines?
Jim

[mic-d]

I did not see Four Corners, but I've seen vision from the show since, enough to be apalled and sickened by it. What other species kills for food, but before they do so, inflict pain, terror and suffering on their prey and knows that they are inflicting pain terror and suffering on them? It just confirms to me that far from being the pinnacle of evolution, we are becoming a vulgar debased shadow of the exceptionally gifted species that the Earth, nature and evolution has sculpted over millions of years. I feel guilty to be a human. I have for a number of years, considered becoming a vegetarian. Perhaps this story will kick me out of my repose. My belief is that most people these days are proxy-vegetarians. Meat products come conveniently wrapped, with little to remind and indicate that they were until recently a living animal. I don't think a lot of people put much thought into where it comes from or the process by which it arrived on their fork. With more frequency of late I play this mind game: If I want to eat this, could I have killed it myself, skinned and gutted it and butchered it? Mostly I don't think I could (because I am not driven to that level of hunger where it would easily be possible) so I wonder if I really deserve to be eating it. I'm a bit of a softy with animals. When I am fishing, I stop when I catch only enough for my tea for the next couple of nights (which usually fills my day - I am a bad fisherman) and when I dispatch them with some sadness give thanks to them and honour them by eating them. I would like to be able to do this with all my meat protein, or else not eat it. So in a suburban setting that really means fish and chicken, though I doubt I could dispatch a chook without starving myself for a day or two, at least initially.
It wasn't always like this. I grew up on a farm and as a stupid kid shot my fair share of small furry and feathered animals, which I am not proud of, but I didn't know any better. Rather than taking my rifle away, my parents made me clean and cook and eat a duck I shot and that made me start thinking. I still marvel today that at the tender age of 10 or 11 they would let me wander off with a .22 and wreak havoc in the back blocks and not even worry about me. A bit later I had a semi automatic .22 so by todays standard I might be considered a terrorist! And it was a crude stupid weapon with redundant features when a single effective shot was ideal. But I ramble.
Let me finish by saying I support just one charity, the RSPCA and like them wonder, and am in wonder of the leniency shown to perpetrators of cruelty to animals such as this one (http://www.thechronicle.com.au/story/2011/03/16/a-father-and-son-have-avoided-jail-after-being-sen/). We better bloody get our own house in order too:((

[acmegridley]

The dopey monkeys should have learnt by now how to kill humanely,if that process was repeated out here you would have the RSPCA on you plus any number of animal rights groups
10 attempts to cut the beasts throat,come on fellas!

[jimbur]

The dopey monkeys should have learnt by now how to kill humanely,if that process was repeated out here you would have the RSPCA on you plus any number of animal rights groups
10 attempts to cut the beasts throat,come on fellas!
I reckon you could have phrased that a little better but I see what you are getting at.
However the problem, as in most industries, isn't just with the bloke on the floor - the killing floor in this case. The problem has to lie with management. If they can't get rid of the useless and sadistic and impart some idea of the ethics of humane treatment of animals in a learning period of some ten years then they need their marching orders too.
On another slant, the meat must be crap. Animals killed under stress makes for tough meat.
Cheers,
JIm

[lesmeyer]

To put things into perspective, Indonesia assembles cars for many of the big manufacturers. How can they competently do that and yet need so long to learn how to run a slaughterhouse on modern lines?
Jim
I do agree with this. For heavens sake - it is the year 2011. However, my opinion is that they who slaughter the animals in this manner wish to do so. They are barbaric to say the least.
Les

[jimbur]

I do agree with this. For heavens sake - it is the year 2011. However, my opinion is that they who slaughter the animals in this manner wish to do so. They are barbaric to say the least.
Les
Agree entirely Les. As I said in my last post, there's no room in a slaughterhouse for sadists, incompetents or for those who employ them. A good start on the Indonesian side would be to sack the managers, they've had their chance.
Cheers,
Jim

[mic-d]

Live export to Indonesia has been halted (http://www.news.com.au/business/julia-gillard-halts-live-cattle-exports-to-indonesia/story-e6frfm1i-1226071368446)

[Waldo]

:aro-u: So who's going to compensate those beef farmers for the loss of income?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/08/3238189.htm

6 months is a long time with no income. I understand the arguments for it and don't disagree - but you can't pull a livelihood away from people and say, "tough titties."

[mic-d]

:aro-u: So who's going to compensate those beef farmers for the loss of income?

Government to suspend live cattle exports - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/08/3238189.htm)

6 months is a long time with no income. I understand the arguments for it and don't disagree - but you can't pull a livelihood away from people and say, "tough titties."

Yes I can see that side of it. The other side is that a more enlightened view of animal welfare has been around since long before the huge investment in technology and infrastructure existed and long before the reliance on large scale live animal export existed. If I were one of those beef farmers I would be asking how and why the relevant agencies and boards could allow such a huge investment of people's livelihoods without carrying out due diligence. The farmers are part of the industry and so must accept some entanglement in the sorry affair too.

[Big Shed]

Agree with that mic-d, as an industry the beef farmers have obviously not learned from similar problems experienced by the sheep industry with the live sheep exports to the Middle East.

Neither have our various government agencies, they all seem to have been asleep at the wheel.

[AlexS]

As I understand it, the beef growers have been paying a levy, supposedly to ensure that the animals were slaughtered humanely. Sounds like whoever collected it wasn't using it terribly effectively.

[jimbur]

As I understand it, the beef growers have been paying a levy, supposedly to ensure that the animals were slaughtered humanely. Sounds like whoever collected it wasn't using it terribly effectively.
Apparently not. Presumably they had to make reports at least annually. I doubt if any of them pointed out the gross deficiencies that 4 Corners appeared to uncover.
Cheers,
Jim

[Sir Stinkalot]

I am not sure the full ban is the way to go and will certainly be felt hard by the farmers. It might be a reflection of true conditions in Indonesia but I would have thought that there would be some slaughterhouse that meet industry best practice and it seems rough to limit their right to trade.

It is interesting that the farmers are all blaming the government and the public who were pushing for the ban but there doesn't seem to be much pressure on the industry bodies who have known about this for some time and just turned a blind eye. Perhaps if they had pulled their fingers out over the past 10 years this could have been avoided completely.

[Waldo]

I am not sure the full ban is the way to go and will certainly be felt hard by the farmers.

And not just by the beef producers who send their stock offshore, it is already having ramifications right through the Australian beef industry. :angfire:

[Cruzi]

Now that the smear campaign has worked and Australia has halted exports, the US will now step in kindly supply Indonesia with nothing changing except that Australia is now $1 billion a year down.

You can always rely on a good knee jerk reaction to destroy an industry.

Same thing happened to the AWB and Aristocrat.:doh:

[jimbur]

The story is even more confused. Indonesia are now saying that they only have to import more beef from New Zealand to cover the shortfall. As New Zealand has banned live exports and only exports frozen beef it appears to make the whole cultural/religious argument fall apart.
Cheers,
Jim

[Harry72]

Poor farmers?
A good proportion of Australians cant afford to buy good beef... flood the market "let us eat beef" I say:D

[Sir Stinkalot]

Last night on Lateline Tony Jones interviewed the livestock export manager for Meat and Livestock Australia, Michael Finucan. Tony seemed to be quite soft with the bloke but it didn't matter as Finucan just kept digging himself deeper and deeper.

TONY JONES: If the Australian cattle farmers are badly hurt by this trade, very briefly, do you think the - your industry association, which presumably has a stockpile of resources, money, should actually be paying the compensation?

MICHAEL FINUCAN: Oh, look, that's something for the board and the senior management. I'm here to deliver these improvement programs up here. That's what I'm committed to. Got a good team of people working here and we're focused on doing that - get this trade re-opened.

Following this interview Bob Katter he actually made some sense:

BOB KATTER: The information that we have been provided with says to us that they get $4.20 out of every ox that is sold in Australia, which should be somewhere about $50, $60, $70 million a year.

Now that's what they're getting to look after our interests. This person tonight admitted that they knew what was going on, that they'd sent people in to have look at this, they knew what was going on and they've known for years and years and years about it and they've done absolutely nothing about it except to provide a stupid box.

Now, you know, the Government: what have they done? They've punished the beef producers. I mean, these people live on our frontiers and I can tell you: they don't live particularly well. They do it very, very hard. And we deeply appreciate what they are doing for our country.

So who's going to pay the penalty for this incompetence? Who is going to pay the penalty? Those poor people up there in northern Australia, our frontiersmen, they're going to pay the penalty.

They're going to lose $150 million. The people that were responsible for it will go off completely unscathed. And everything I heard tonight would indicate to me, as did my discussions at the highest level with government, that they are going to do absolutely nothing of any effect whatsoever.

Seems like the farmers end up getting the rough end of the stick and the industry that they pay to look after their interests has let them down in a big way. Its all well and good blaming the government for stopping the exports but it would seem that MLA have been taking good money that should have gone into preventing this very situation and have done nothing productive with it for years. The farmers should be seeking their compensation from MLA.

[jimbur]

Frontiersmen - oh dear. Bob Katter'll wearing a coonskin cap next. He'd do well to remember the Alamo.
Cheers,
Jim