Opinion: Time to compensate farmers for 2011 live export ban

The Gillard government was responsible for what may be the worst government bungle in living memory. It’s time for Anthony Albanese and his dithering Minister for Agriculture Murray Watt fix it, writes Des Houghton. TAKE OUR POLL

The Gillard Labor government was responsible for what may be the worst government bungle in living memory, so why oh why won’t Anthony Albanese and his dithering Minister for Agriculture Murray Watt fix it?

Hundreds of millions of dollars went up in smoke and there was suffering and suicides following the Indonesian live cattle export ban 12 years ago that destroyed business and marriages.

The Federal Court described the ban, approved by then-agriculture minister Joe Ludwig as unlawful, “capricious, irrational and unreasonable”.

Justice Steven Rares went further, saying the ban “constituted malfeasance in public office”.

Rares ordered the government to pay damages and costs. But victims have still not received their money.

Joe Ludwig. File picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Murray Watt. File picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The Albanese government is being pressed to settle the class action claim that may go to $800m or more. So far, the federal government has made what I see as a derisory offer that will send the matter back to the courts next year with soaring legal bills and more time-wasting.

The Australian reported that the government offered only $215m to settle a class action even though the cattle industry originally sought $1bn in damages after winning the case.

After negotiations with the Feds stalled this month, the lead applicant in the class action, Brett Cattle Company, lodged a claim to settle the case for $510m plus interest payments and costs, which could take the total to $900m.

Compare the delays with prompt payment of $800m to the French government after Australia tore up a billion-dollar submarine contract.

The court heard the 215 parties to the class action include cattle producers, exporters and independent service providers such as truckies, veterinarians and musterers.

These are honest people who work in some of the worst conditions imaginable to feed us – and the world.

Cattle lined up for sale in Bali prior to Australia suspending live cattle exports to Indonesia.

They were devastated by Labor’s unlawful decision to end the live cattle trade without warning, and it is a travesty that they still await compensation.

To me it is another sign of the wanton disregard and the barefaced hostility that state and federal Labor governments often show rural Australians.

And Labor has learned nothing. Minister Watt’s proposed live sheep export ban will devastate graziers, especially in Western Australia.

Labor’s industrial relations changes relating to labour hire will make it difficult to recruit workers. And the Albanese government has given the OK for transmission lines for renewables to cut through precious farm land.

In Parliament this week the leader of The Nationals, David Littleproud and Member for Flynn, Colin Boyce, also raised fears about the impact on the Great Artesian Basin of carbon sequestration projects.

Tony Mahar, the chief of the National Farmers Federation, said families were still suffering from the live export ban debacle.

Mahar said the government needs to pay up “to allow families to move on from a traumatic event that has been running for over 10 years”.

“This latest settlement offer is an attempt to end a very painful chapter in the history of Australian agriculture that has done severe and unnecessary damage to producers, their families and the broader supply chain,” Mahar said.

“The Government’s political decision to end live exports showed scant regard for its own departmental advice, and caused widespread financial damage, family breakups, and even suicide among those impacted.’’

The saga began in 2011 when the ABC Four Corners program ran video footage of inhumane slaughter of Australian cattle exported to Indonesia.

Activists protesting against live cattle exports.

The court heard the RSPCA in 2011 stood by an earlier assessment that “animal welfare was generally good, and that Australian cattle in Indonesia were generally coping well with the conditions to which they were exposed”.

Mahar said Ludwig had made a rushed decision and the export ban followed a “premeditated campaign by animal rights activists”.

“Agriculture Minister Murray Watt needs to accept this offer and bring this matter to an end, giving farmers and their families affected the closure that they deserve following the findings of the Federal Court,” Mahar said.

Littleproud said the government should right its wrong promptly.

“Labor should settle this case now and give farmers the Christmas present they deserve,” he said.

Senator Susan McDonald, who grew up on a cattle property, points out that many of the same people in cabinet today were also members of the Gillard cabinet responsible for the bungle. McDonald, opposition spokeswoman for Northern Australia, said they now “have the opportunity to right this terrible injustice”.

Nationals Leader David Littleproud.

“This is a cabinet who could facilitate the payment now,” she said. “They had no problem paying out Brittany Higgins, yet they can’t find a way to pay this industry compensation claim.”

“I think the government has dragged its feet. They have not acted as model litigants, and they caused real damage both in animal welfare, human pain and suffering, and financial hurt.”

McDonald said some claimants were old and may die before they got their rightful compensation.

“I think it is shocking,” she said. “It is wrong, it is wrong.”

The government has until January 19 to accept the offer or potentially face a more significant payout.

A MESSAGE TO BOB KATTER

What an odd fellow Bob Katter has become.

The senator wants to wipe the image of King Charles from our coins.

It’s a ridiculous idea, I’m sure you will agree.

I feel it is my duty to remind the senator that King Charles III, King of England and head of the Commonwealth, is also the king of Australia.

Queensland MP Bob Katter has suggested a new design for Australia's coins.

It must really irk Katter to see our popular monarch looking resplendent and so very regal on a new set of stamps commemorating His Majesty’s 75th birthday.

One of the stamps is a trip down memory lane. It carries a black and white picture of Prince Charles arriving in Australia in 1966.

A second stamp shows His Majesty sitting at his desk. To me, it symbolises his lifetime of duty and leadership. The third stamp features the official coronation portrait of the King along with the official coronation emblem.

You should take up stamp collecting in your dotage, senator. You might learn something about where we came from.

IRRITANT OF THE WEEK

State Development director-general Mike Kaiser, for political hectoring about the Gabba redevelopment on social media in breach of public service neutrality conventions.