NT cattle industry to prosper after Federal Court ruling: NT Cattlemen’s Association

THE Territory’s $1.2 billion cattle industry will grow stronger with flow-on indirect impacts for numerous industries after yesterday’s landmark ruling, according to the head of the NT Cattlemen’s Association.

The NT has a 40 per cent share of Australia’s livestock export industry. Picture: Keri Megelus

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THE Territory’s $1.2 billion cattle industry will grow stronger with flow-on indirect impacts for numerous industries after yesterday’s landmark ruling, according to the head of the NT Cattlemen’s Association.

The NT, which holds a 40 per cent share of Australia’s livestock export industry, was significantly impacted as trade effectively ceased overnight due to the ban order.

NT Cattlemen’s Association chief executive Ashley Manicaros said the decision would bolster the cattle industry financially for years and flow to the sectors that support it, including transport and shipping, animal husbandry, feed producers and accommodation providers for stockmen.

“I think (the ruling) validates and vindicates the position adopted by the industry in 2011, when they really did fight very hard to prove to the Australian public and the community in general, that they had an industry that was valuable to the NT economy and to trade that was valuable to Australia,” he said.

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NT Cattlemen’s Association chief executive Ashley Manicaros. Picture: Keri Megelus

Hamish Brett, who runs his family’s company out of Waterloo Station 540km southwest of Katherine, said the ban lasted a few weeks but the reputational damage with Indonesia lasted years.

“I hope this goes across the borders to Indonesia to show our trading partners that we realise it was a bad decision by our government and they’re going to pay the price,” he said.

“So hopefully we can all get back together and be friends and keep trading together for a long and a prosperous time.”

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Mr Brett said the ban brought the industry to its knees, and though some pastoralists were crushed, the industry as a whole managed to recover over time.

“We’re making our industry a whole lot stronger,” he said. “

In hindsight I think it may have helped the industry a lot, put it that way, but we’re ready to go and make it better into the future.”