Editorial
by Gil Hanrahan
The farming industry’s beloved Liberal National Party is about to betray them again when Liberal MP Susan Ley will today introduce a private member’s bill into the Lower House that would ban live sheep exports to the Middle East during the northern hemisphere summer months in 2019 and close the sector down entirely in five years.
The last major double-cross for agriculture by the Liberals was in 1999 when PM John Howard introduced the Environment and Biosecurity Conservation Act which was the key for the states to introduce severe vegetation management laws.
How much more government intervention the industry can take is anyone’s guess but soon over-regulation will choke all primary industry to a standstill regardless of the political hue in Canberra.
The last bastion of neo-liberalism, the National Farmers Federation and Meat and Livestock Australia have committed their final Judas act by rolling over whenever pressure is applied by activists.
The traitorous ABC troll responsible for shutting down the live cattle export industry based on false and misleading television footage of Indonesian-bred cattle being mistreated by bribed abattoir workers is Susan Ferguson.
Coincidentally she is the wife of Q&A presenter and ALP sycophant Tony Jones.
Ferguson and the Animals Australia snake Lyn White aided and abetted by the ABC shut down the live cattle export trade overnight in 2011.
It is on the record these misguided, athiest animal rights activists indirectly caused a number of suicides across the agricultural sector.
As a consequence a group of cattle producers is suing the Federal Government for $600 million in compensation after live exports to Indonesia were banned by the Gillard administration.
Now it seems the trendsetters of the left division in the Liberal Party have joined in to support the Liberal backbencher’s anti-export bill.
Shadow Agriculture Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said Labor will lock in its support for what will be known as the Live Sheep Long Haul Export Prohibition Bill.
Livestock producers should be aware these fifth-columnists won’t stop with sheep. Those opposed to live export are rounding up their forces right now to shut down cattle exports. http://www.animalsaustralia.org/
These pagans believe animal rights take precedence over human lives in a similar fashion to the Queensland Labor Party and it seems the Liberals who continue to allow tourists and North Queensland inhabitants be torn apart by monstrous crocodiles.
The sheep meat industry and producers had better take a strong stand instead of simply rolling over as normal. If they leave it to the producer bodies they might as well hand the farm keys to the Chinese now.
What will their starving, urbanised grandchildren say?
Does this statement by the editor bear any resemblance to your silly question?
“The socialist unions in a determined campaign have pushed up wages so high in Australia we are unable to compete with any other country. Trying to sell boxed meat overseas even at the cost of production has failed because it is too dear. It is not the producer’s fault-he is a price taker. It is the exorbitant cost of union run labour. Tell that to that mad spokeswoman for the animal mob.” Editor
TO ED.
The economic comparison of Live Exports VERSUS Total Meat Exports from Australia to all countries 2014-2015 is as follows:
CATTLE
Beef and Veal MEAT export sales $8.858 Billion
Live export of cattle for slaughter $1,163 Billion.
SHEEP
Total value of sheep MEAT exports $2.474 Billion
Live export of sheep for slaughter $245 Million
The combined estimated export value of MEAT exports was $11.332 Billion
The combined estimation of live sheep and cattle exports for SLAUGHTER was $1.408 Billion
Source ( Agricultural Commodity Statistics 2015 ABARES)
The unions and the meat workers and export Australian abattoirs are responsible for the high sales of exported cattle and sheep FROZEN and CHILLED meat exports to hundreds of cities etc. all over the world……..So where did you get your information from? A cornflakes packet?????
When you buy butter from Coles does the supermarket tell you how to use it? You must be a subscriber to the treacherous Animals Australia agnostic site.
The socialist unions in a determined campaign have pushed up wages so high in Australia we are unable to compete with any other country. Trying to sell boxed meat overseas even at the cost of production has failed because it is too dear. It is not the producer’s fault-he is a price taker. It is the exorbitant cost of union run labour. Tell that to that mad spokeswoman for the animal mob.ED
Good grief, who wrote this hysterical drivel?But you are right. We will not stop at sheep. We won’t stop until no animal is put on a hideous old third world rustbucket and sent off to brutal slaughter. Anywhere. This systemic animal torture practised by Australia has drawn the condemnation of the world, and that is what Australian farmers are now known for.
What you’re heading for – and it’s already happening – is that these countries are butchering Australian animals and selling their meat on to other countries. Are you happy to see the loss of Australian jobs and markets? Just for your few extra bucks selling to exporters – especially when you KNOW, and have known for decades, the hideoous fate you are selling them to.
We actually do not only cruelly export our animals to Muslim countries. China, Vietnam, Japan, Israel and the Philippines are not Muslim countries, so let’s keep the xenophobia in check and concentrate on the issue – the abhorrent, appalling cruelty.
I totally agree with you Mike. We need to value human lives and the lives of animals. I abhor live exports. Not only do they have to endure a horrific journey, they also have to endure a horrific death. I am against halal slaughter. It is unnecessary. Islam claims that for meat to be halal it must be slaughtered in a certain way. Bullshit! For any food to be made halal, all they need to do is say a prayer (I forget what it is called) over the meat for it to be halal. Quite convenient that they never mention that to western society, probably something to do with taqqiya and having us pander to their religion, after all they do believe that they are ‘superior’ to us. That aside, yes when that animal is sacrificed it undergoes a barbaric ritual. These animals are rendered defenceless, having their eyes knifed and legs broken. I have seen videos and I never want to see another one as long as I live. For these reasons I want live export banned. Will it kill our trade industries? For a while, but with the world’s growing population and food needs I think this may be a short term effect, after we all have to eat, and you can only grow hungry for so long. We have animal protection laws and we should uphold them. This is what sets us apart from barbarism.
I totally agree with you Mike. We need to value human lives and the lives of animals. I abhor live exports. Not only do they have to endure a horrific journey, they also have to endure a horrific death. I am against halal slaughter. It is unnecessary. Islam claims that for meat to be halal it must be slaughtered in a certain way. Bullshit! For any food to be made halal, all they need to do is say a prayer (I forget what it is called) over the meat for it to be halal. Quite convenient that they never mention that to western society, probably something to do with taqqiya and having us pander to their religion, after all they do believe that they are ‘superior’ to us. That aside, yes when that animal is sacrificed it undergoes a barbaric ritual. These animals are rendered defenceless, having their eyes knifed and legs broken. I have seen videos and I never want to see another one as long as I live. For these reasons I want live export banned. Will it kill our trade industries? For a while, but with the world’s growing population and food needs I think this may be a short term effect, after we all have to eat, and you can only grow hungry for so long. We have animal protection laws and we should uphold them. This is what sets us apart from barbarism.
We should be starving those filthy Muslim countries off the face of the earth. To feed our enemies from our food bowl is insanity. And to do it in such a disgustingly cruel barbaric money hungry way without any regard for the sheep is not the Aussie way.
This is a difficult subject for me as I support free market capitalism and the small farmers (which were wiped out in the 1980s in the US under the fool, Reagan). But, do you know how these animals are slaughtered in the Muslim world? Animal sacrifice and halal slaughter. In Saudi Arabia in the 1980s (we do not know if this has changed now in 2018), animals are sacrificed and then just bull dozed into the sand at Muslim festivals. These animals are not even eaten in these situations.
Yeah, humans are more important than animals, but why are some of these backward peoples still adhering to such primitive superstitions? We ought to be humane to animals.
Hi Rosalie your comments from a producer’s perspective have been well received. The live animal export trade engenders lots of emotions. For many years we opposed the export of our unique and invaluable Merino genetics. Our fine wool was unsurpassed in the world, but the government and some producers got too greedy, hence China’s ability to meet us in the market for wool products. Same for the cattle breeders. In the 1950’s a handful of prescient cattlemen imported Bos Indicus cattle from India and the US. They were strange looking animals with huge humps atop their shoulders. Known as Brahmans this breed transformed the Australian cattle industry. Then came Whitlam, Hawke and Keating bearing gifts from their International Socialist Organisation handlers and wages went through the roof, with the help of militant unions such as the AMIEU. Meatworkers took home more pay each fortnight than the average cattle and sheep producer made in six months. Then the free trading and deregulating Liberals (and Nationals hiding in the background) allowed their jobs to be exported to live animal importing countries. Until we can produce packaged meat that our overseas customers can afford, the live trade will continue. Many thanks for your contribution. Please pass this on to the sheep breeders of South Australia. Please note the legal action against the federal government for damages to the cattle industry from the live export ban in 2011 is being spearheaded by NT producer Colin Brett an astute and fine, upstanding Australian who should be handed the country’s highest award for services to humanity. There are no foreign interests involved as far as our information goes. Editor
Radio 5AA in SA ran a straw poll and the overwhelming view of the respondents was in favour of stopping the live sheep trade. As a producer I like to know that my animals are heading for a quick and humane slaughter at the nearest abattoirs after leaving the farm. It’s tough enough on them having to endure a a long truck ride without the traumas of a lengthy sea voyage and the savage treatment on the other side of the world.
Shouldn’t they be slaughtered as close as possible to their point of origin in facilities that we Aussies have control over?. Apart from the comfort of the livestock it provides jobs and other flow on benefits in the community.
Is the stopping of the cruel live sheep trade really comparable to the traitorous signing of the Environment and Biosecurity Conservation Act or of other Acts which have destroyed property rights and hamstrung the abilities of primary producers to live productive and innovative lives in Australia?
Is the cattle trade between Indonesia and northern Australia even comparable with the sheep trade from southern Australia to the northern hemisphere with its substantial climate differences and long distances? I think not.
As for giving the keys to the Chinese, how many of those businesses suing for damages are genuine Aussies and how many are other nationalities?
Perhaps though; the proposed Live Sheep Long Haul Export Prohibition Bill may need to be scrutinised as to how it effects transport within Aussie.
A great idea, Judith, but far too simple and easy for our politicians to comprehend.Pity they weren’t given an IQ test before entering Parliament…the politicians, not the sheep!
All Australia were shocked at the way the live sheep were squashed against each other and literally “boiling to DEATH”..That is the FACT..but why ..because there were TOO MANY at the one time ..cramped up to the hilt…
As you probably know there is A NEW BREED OF SHEEP produced by one FARMER which has NO WOOL and is a PURE BREED FOR MEAT ONLY…over years of trial and error…
Now what if our Australian ABBATOIRS UP NORTH were opened and according to HALAL PROCESSING were done here making sure of the welfare of the sheep or cattle PROCESSED AND FROZEN AND PACKED FOR SHIPPING..????
This maybe one avenue to follow…???