Time to stop slaughter in our backyard

If the Government is so keen to ban live meat export to Indonesia, why won't Labor instantly ban cigarette imports in the blink of an eye? It seems it is OK to kill people via smoking, but not OK to kill animals? What next, a proposal to wrap export cows in plain paper packaging with a health warning?

A very well written article and it highlights how out of touch with reality this Government is! How the hell did we end up in this situation when the majority actually voted Liberal I don't know! I think this is one of the worst examples of a knee jerk decision ever in the history of Australia and the decision will likely kill off another valuable export for Australia. Won't be long before we are just a quarry country giving away all of our resources at ridiculously low Royalty rates! I guess it only stands to reason as the various Fisheries departments around Australia have instrumentally killed off the fishing industry Australia wide, I guess the next obvious step is to focus on land based animal farming!

Well put Mark, on all aspects, including the cats. Unfortunately they (this Federal Government) never listen to the average Joe Blow who according to them knows nothing.

It seems the real Prime Minister, Bob Brown and the members of his shallow thinking Green have had their way again without having deep thoughts on the ramifications of their knee jerk actions

The Article is outstanding and courageously flags the real issues inside the country. Cats especially and other imported feral animals have slaughtered our indigenous wild life and utterly devastated our natural environment - we have manicured european style garderns wasting our water supplies and all the natural undergrowth habitat providing any protection to native wildlife cleared away The livestock and sheep and cattle issues is well commented on and we have efffectively destroyed our cattle export sales industry - Indonesia will prefer now to buy from Africa, and South America [Argentina] What arrogance we show creating food shortages and hardship in other peoples countries by demanding that they fix a problem the Government should have been fully aware of through the reporting systems in place and paid for by the cattle industry. And not even giving notice or time to the county or support to fix the problem. We have a Government run by the sensationalist media and a highly agggresive vocal minority What has happened to the real Australia of helping your mates?

Hey come on, you can't really expect it!! Its always convenient to pick on Asians, whether you accept it or not. However multicultural that Australia might proclaim itself to be, there are certain "stereotypical" perceptions etched in the minds of Australians (of European background) that Asians and underdeveloped (and under-developing) countries means "backward" in everything. Australians (of European origin) always think they know everything and do everything correctly and perfectly, only to turn a blind eye to all things inept in their own backyard. As such, the same applies to animal cruelty.

Well put Mark, even with the tongue half in cheek regarding our menacing neighbourhood cats. The live cattle export industry needs to accept responsibility for the inhumane treatment of animals however a 6 month ban is a typical over reaction from an inept Government, interested only in votes and power. How hard is it to arrange inspection managers to be placed on site during any times of slaughter, so the practices can be monitored. Would that take 3, maybe 4 weeks at max?

Well written article. What about the cane toads? Government just wipe it off the slate as impossible. After how many years....? Then they have the audacity to blame the meat industry that in 10 years they hae not made progress. Forgetting to mention the progress that they have made in Indonesia. Knee jerk? Well what would you expect from a Green controlled government. The puppets are hanging on their strings waiting for that jerk. And then we have the Independants. So called voice of the farmers. What are tehy doing. They are only concerned with what will happen to them. Well maybe we should have an election and see how many independants are still there to join there Green masters.

i am absaloutly discusded of what i have see, also my family. if they cant kill them quickly like australians do, they shouldnt get our meat.

Ok I feel the need to comment out of pure frustration on this topic... Background views - I have a frustration that our core resources go directly offshore, as an Australians we never add value (generalisation, yes) where other countries who started with very little have been extremely successful, ie Japan with their innovative technologies. With regard to live exports, I realise that this is for religious reasons, why can they not be slaughtered in the correct way in Australia where we can control the treatment but also not subject the animals to ridiculous lenghs of travel to meet their fate and create further jobs and income for Australians? - I also find it amazing that the public are suddenly so shocked by the treatment! What do you think goes on at a these places. This is the mass production of meat. Know where your food comes from. I made a decision many years ago to become vegetarian as I don’t agree with the processes (globally). Some points to consider - Meat is a luxury item, India for example many people are vegetarians, less than 30% of people eat meat on a regular basis. The Western world consumes far too much meat, hence the rise in obesity and certain cancers. Which our taxes then pay for - Australian 2010 est GDP $886.9bn, I have seen in some recent articles that live cattle exports to Indonesia is worth $300m, live exports $1bn so that’s 0.04% and 0.11% of Australia’s GDP respectively, not really that significant. Perhaps if a comprimise can’t be achieved then the public (tax payer) can compensate the hard working farmers - Mark – your comments on cats is relevant and I somewhat agree, cattle too, are not native. There are estimates that it requires 130 litres of water to produce 1kg of meat (I'm sure that's an exageration, but still true to the point that they require alot of water!). In a country where water is such an issue, is it responsible to encourage this industry? - Perhaps we should be putting all our efforts/resources (given the forecast income from these new mining/oil projects) into innovative new industries that will sustain our future generations!