$500-plus legal claim over live cattle shutdown
The Albanese government is being pressed to settle a legal claim from the cattle industry 14 years after the Gillard government shut down the live cattle trade to Indonesia overnight.
The Albanese government is being pressed to settle a $500m-$800m legal claim from the cattle industry some 12 years after the Gillard Labor government shut down the live cattle trade to Indonesia overnight.
In December last year, the federal government offered $215m to settle a class action with the beef industry after the Federal Court found the original decision “constituted malfeasance in public office” and ordered government to pay damages and costs.
The cattle industry had originally sought more than $1bn in damages and the Federal Court ordered negotiations to estimate the cost of the total damage to the cattle export industry.
In November, the lead applicant in the class action, Brett Cattle Company, after negotiations with the government, lodged a claim to settle the case for $510m plus interest payments and costs, which could take the total to $800m-$900m.
The government has been given until mid-January next year to settle the class action without returning to the Federal Court, which could result in higher costs and damages.
National Farmers Federation chief executive Tony Mahar said it was clear the government needed to accept this reasonable offer and allow families to move on from a traumatic event that had been running for over 10 years.
“This latest settlement offer is an attempt to bring to an 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,” Mr 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 break-ups, and even suicide among those impacted.
“The rushed decision following a Four Corners story combined with a premeditated campaign by animal rights activists was found to have been unlawful, with the Federal Court taking the extraordinary step of labelling the action ‘capricious, irrational and unreasonable’.”
In May 2011 after Four Corners aired footage of Australian cattle being slaughtered and GetUp ran an animal rights campaign against live cattle exports, the Gillard government banned live cattle exports to Indonesia.
Three months later exports were allowed under a strict regime but the entire cattle industry lost hundreds of millions of dollars and the Indonesian market was permanently damaged.
A spokesman for the Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, said the delay in resolving the proceedings was not due to any actions by the Commonwealth.
“The Commonwealth has engaged in a good-faith attempt to settle the claims made by the applicants, including by making an offer of settlement of $215 million dollars in December 2022,” the spokesman said.
The attempt to close the claim from the cattle industry, involving more than 200 claimants ranging from farmers to veterinarians, comes as the Labor government and Minister for Agriculture Murray Watt are under pressure to abandon plans to phase out live sheep exports.
Even West Australian Labor Premier Roger Cook is pushing the federal government to stop plans to ban live sheep exports. Live cattle and live sheep exports are vital to agriculture in WA.
In the WA parliament last week, Mr Cook said: “We believe the welfare arrangements that are in place, the checks and balances that have been put in place as a result of the reforms around that are sufficient. We believe this will be an unnecessary burden and one that [the federal government] should reconsider.”
NFF president David Jochinke welcomed Mr Cook’s comments, saying it was time the Albanese government listened.
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