As we all know, the export of cattle to Indonesia by our Australian cattle barons was banned because of the brutal slaughtering methods used in that country’s abattoirs. This action by our Federal Government now appears to have descended into the type of farce that we saw with roof insulation and the BER activities.
Our Australian cattle barons have decided to put the blame for all of the problems they are experiencing on the Federal Labor Government and accept no responsibility at all for their failure to respond to warnings they received as far back as 2005.
We were given a good example of their regard for the livestock they handle from the ravings of one of their number. He suggested shooting the stock that were left on their hands, some 3000 of them, and leaving them to rot in some out of the way paddock.
There is a similarity to the roof insulation scheme. Business groups that smelt the large amounts of taxpayers’ cash in the roof insulation caper were, in many instances, unqualified to take on the work they quoted for. They sent untrained workers to their deaths, a number of houses were burnt down and poor quality batts were installed.
The cattle producers and the MLA could only see the large profits in what they were doing and the suffering of the cattle was not something they were concerned about.
Geoffrey H Gilmour, Stanthorpe
