Transcript ABC 24 - Live cattle ban
1st June, 2011
ABC: The Gillard Government has banned live cattle exports to almost a dozen Indonesian abattoirs and it's not ruling out ending the trade altogether.The National Party's concerned about the prospect of a complete ban. This of course follows those horrifying images that were broadcast on Monday night by 'Four Corners' of slaughtering in Indonesia that was cruel. For more Warren Truss joins us from Canberra. Good morning.
TRUSS: Good to talk to you again.
ABC: Does the National Party have a problem with the fact that the Government's banned these particular 11 Indonesian abattoirs?
TRUSS: I think that's an entirely appropriate response. The footage that we saw on 'Four Corners' was horrifying, disgusting and completely unacceptable. We cannot allow Australian animals to go to that kind of a death.
Australian farmers who love and care for their animals would have had tears in their eyes when they saw what was happening in Indonesia.
The Government has been right to prevent future cattle from Australia going to those abattoirs.
ABC: On to the other issue then of more a broad based ban, I'm interested in your response to an interesting story on the front page of the 'Australian' today according to a senior Indonesian cleric in Australia yesterday those cattle weren't being slaughtered under Islamic law. The way they were being traumatised and cut with blunt knives wasn't resulting in proper Halal meat being produced, that's something I know Australian farmers are concerned about when their live cattle go overseas?
TRUSS: There are often differences in interpretation about what's acceptable under Halal law but what I saw for certain was unacceptable to Australians and for that reason we cannot allow it to continue.
There are a number of abattoirs in Indonesia that have best practice, that have got modern stunning and slaughter facilities and I think it would be a mistake to deny cattle going into those abattoirs that are doing the right thing.
If we're going to reward and change practice in Indonesia then we've got to be supporting those abattoirs that do the right thing and save up our wrath for those that are clearly using unsatisfactory practice.
For those who have been protesting against live animal exports for years now, a large part of their complaint has been about the voyage that the animals actually take, the conditions in which they sail and in which they're forced to live for quite a period of time.
ABC: Aren't there still question marks about that?
TRUSS: The Four Corners program showed clearly the cattle boarding those ships were in good condition. The cattle in the feed lots in Indonesia were well cared for and in world class facilities.
The ship itself is obviously on a much shorter journey when it goes to Indonesia but the conditions are also good and there are very, very few losses in the live cattle trade on the voyage.
So I think the problems that have been identified in the past with sheep and cattle going overseas have been addressed, it doesn't mean there won't be occasional problems but I think the industry has demonstrated that it's got a capacity to fix the problems.
It must now fix these issues in Indonesia otherwise its social licence from the people of Australia for the nature of this trade will disappear. These problems have got to be fixed. The Government and industry need to work together to make sure that only best practice is happening in relation to the slaughter of Australian animals.
ABC: Should we ban the live export trade, couldn't we actually turn that into a bit of a successful gain for Australia because we could vertically integrate the industry a lot better here? We could employ a few more people engaged in the slaughtering of meat and send over chilled Halal meat to the countries that want it? We like to process as much in Australia as we possibly can, we could do that, wouldn't it be a more valuable product?
TRUSS: There are issues with the slaughter in northern Australia because there is not a single meatworks, export meatworks in the whole of northern Australia, from Harvey in WA across to Townsville in Queensland.
So you'd be facing thousands of kilometres journey for these cattle to get to an Australian abattoir. In addition to that, it's difficult to get labor and abattoirs in the Northern Territory and in other parts of the north have failed in the past. They have to close for long periods during the wet season so I doubt we'll ever really reach a situation where that will be entirely practical. But on top of all of that, even if we do have abattoirs and we're able to send frozen or chilled beef to Indonesia, most of the places where these horrible scenes were shot are actually places where there is little refrigeration and so the only way those people can get fresh meat is for cattle to be delivered to them live.
ABC: I believe that the Government is aware, and cognisant of all of those issues they've just raised them when they're being pressured right now by a number of sources and a number of groups and individuals to consider a complete ban on live exports?
TRUSS: The Government's response has been appropriate. They've taken immediate action to ban exports to certain abattoirs, but they're also reviewing the whole of the operation in Indonesia. That's an appropriate thing to do. The industry needs to work also constructively with the Government. We have some influence in Indonesia because we are a supplier.
If we walk away, the practices will no doubt revert to the traditions of 2,000 years ago and that's not what we want. By being there, by being active participants we can in fact engender change and indeed a lot of upgrading of abattoirs has been done at the expense of Australian cattlemen and of course with some Australian Government support. So by being there we can actually deliver better animal welfare outcomes for the whole industry.
ABC: As you've seen in just I know the brief 24 hour glance you've been able to have at Ross Garnaut's final report looking into the effective impact of a carbon price, are there any pit falls or dangers in there for agriculture and industry?
TRUSS: Ross Garnaut has made it clear that he wants agriculture included entirely as quickly as possible. In fact as close as 4 years away. That suggests that another Gillard Government promise that agriculture would be excluded is likely to be on the list of lies.
The Government, if it takes up these sort of responses, will mean that Australian farmers will be uncompetitive with the rest of the world. Our food will become more expensive. The other promises and proposals under Garnaut to move quickly to higher fuel prices and once more his acknowledgment that this tax is not for 1,000 big polluters, but the weight will be borne by Australian households - they're all salutary lessons and the Government needs to take that into account when making its assessment about where it wants to go from here.
ABC: There would be many Australians who think that if all households are going to bear the brunt of Australia trying to shift to a cleaner economy and reduce our emissions why should agriculture be excluded?
TRUSS: It's not included anywhere else in the world. It is impossible to measure inputs and outputs and so there are practical reasons why it can't be done.
But the other key element is do we want to be dependent upon other parts of the world for our entire food supply or do we want an industry that's truly competitive?
Bearing in mind that Australian farmers are about the most CO2 efficient in the world. We've actually reduced our CO2 emission s over recent years and so the industry deserves credit for what it's been able to achieve - without having to have - to pay the burden of this heavy tax that their competitors around the world will not pay.
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