Government must act to get live exports moving
16-June-2011
Federal Member for Parkes, Mark Coulton, has called on the Government to be proactive in ensuring welfare standards for Australian cattle in Indonesia are improved and that the live export trade to Indonesia is resumed within weeks.
Mr Coulton said the delay in restarting the trade to Indonesia will damage the live export industry and damage the Australian cattle producers who rely on the trade. Mr Coulton also stated an inquiry into the welfare standards in Indonesian abattoirs would yet further delay a resumption of the trade and would not achieve an affective outcome in a suitable time frame.
“The Government needs to put protocols in place to get the live export industry moving again immediately,” Mr Coulton stated. “There is too much rhetoric being thrown around and not enough action to ensure we can get our cattle in to Indonesia as soon as possible, with all welfare issues addressed.”
“We have all acknowledged that the treatment of our cattle witnessed on the Four Corners program was completely unacceptable; however now is the time to take action and make sure Indonesian abattoirs adhere to internationally accepted welfare standards.”
“The Government needs to send a top level bureaucratic delegation to Indonesia to negotiate terms of trade and actually inspect the abattoirs. We need a plan to say which abattoirs our cattle can be sent to, a plan to track where our cattle are slaughtered and there needs to be a date set for the resumption of the trade, even a partial trade to specific abattoirs, within the next two weeks.”
“There is a limited timeline for the industry to survive this year’s trade. We have cattle sitting in the ports ready to be shipped. We have producers mustering their cattle, which if not exported now, will be over the accepted live weight. Then there are all the associated businesses which rely on this trade such as the truck transport companies and the export ships. There is too much riding on this industry, to simply let it sort itself out.”
“The Government has pulled the rug out from under this industry and now they must work with the industry to get it moving again. However, unfortunately this does not seem to be a priority of this Government.”