Four Corners Tonight - A Bloody Business

[mic-d]

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)

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.

[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.

[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

[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