Farmers say politics delaying potential $1.2bn settlement

Agriculture groups have accused the government of deliberately stalling a payout in the class action brought against the 2011 live cattle export ban.

Cattle ready for live export in Western Australia. Picture: Charlie Peel

Farmers and the government have been given until November to mediate a potential $1.2bn settlement in the class action brought against the 2011 live cattle export ban.

Agriculture groups have accused the government – which includes current cabinet ministers who served under Julia Gillard when the “unlawful” ban was implemented – of deliberately stalling the payout.

Federal Court Justice Steven Rares in 2020 ruled the Gillard government acted unlawfully and unreasonably when it blocked the trade after footage aired showing mistreatment of Australian cattle in Indonesia.

Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association chief executive Will Evans said he was concerned the settlement had been deliberately derailed.

“This is a legal matter that was decided almost three years ago. We won. Right now, we should simply be finalising the details of the claim. These ongoing delays are causing real harm to real people,” Mr Evans said.

“Our fear is that the settlement has been swept up in Labor’s policy aspirations.”

“It is concerning that 11 of today’s Federal Cabinet Ministers were also in the Gillard Cabinet in 2011 and were responsible for making the decision to ban the trade in the first place. I would hope these politicians would see it as a moral obligation to see a just settlement finalised immediately – but it appears this is not their intention.”

The lawyer leading the case, MinterEllison partner Andrew Gill, last month told an industry conference the government’s lawyers were being instructed out of cabinet instead of the Department of Finance.

The government did not directly respond to the claim in questions from The Australian.

“Finance continues to engage constructively on the matter in accordance with its legal obligations,” a Department of Finance spokesperson said.

Only the lead applicant in the class action, Brett Cattle Company, has received a payout of about $3m.

The government last year agreed to settlement talks with the remaining claimants rather than finding a solution through the courts.

It made an offer to the cattle industry in December but says it is yet to receive a “substantive response”.

Live animal export protesters in Sydney in 2011.

Sources close to the matter say there is a “considerable gulf” between the industry’s proposed $1.2bn figure and the government’s offer.

Last week, Justice Rares agreed to extend an already lengthened deadline for mediation talks to November.

Those mediation talks will run concurrently with the case proceeding through the courts in case settlement talks fail.

The 2020-21 federal budget set aside an undisclosed sum to settle compensation and legal costs associated with the case.

The claimants, including some of the country’s biggest beef companies, say the government’s actions had effects beyond 2011 and resulted in loss of business until 2014.

The government’s offer is to pay only for loss of business in 2011.

There is also disagreement over the eligibility of indirect industry participants, like truck drivers, for payouts.

The court in 2020 found that at least 88,000 cattle would have been exported to Indonesia in 2011 if the government’s ban did not take place.

National Farmers’ Federation vice president David Jochinke said the industry had “had enough”.

NFF vice president David Jochinke. Picture: Supplied

“The government’s request for more information is excessive when the farmers have already won the case and proven their loss,” Mr Jochinke said.

“We believe the government’s legal strategy has become noticeably more belligerent and we’ve questioned whether the case is being deliberately protracted and politicised.”