Friday, December 6, 2013

Support Domestic Australian Meat Industry

The recent diplomatic disagreement between the governments of Indonesia and Australia and the prospect of Indonesia moving away from live export from Australia, is more evidence of the need to support domestic processing rather than live animal export.

As I have said previously, live export is not only a failure of ethics, it is a failure of economics. One of Australia's biggest cattlemen, Jack Burton, has failed to get support from the Federal Government for investment in onshore processing to reduce the industry's dependence on live exports.

Mr Burton said he had been trying unsuccessfully for several weeks to speak to Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce about Government support for an abattoir in the Kimberley. His Yeeda Pastoral Company, which has about 60,000 cattle on seven stations covering about 1.2 million hectares, is building a $20 million abattoir with capacity to process about 50,000 cattle a year between Broome and Derby. Mr Burton wants to expand the project with Government backing in preference to selling off more equity to overseas investors.
 
With the industry concerned about the fallout from the Indonesian situation Australia needs to diversify itself, away from live export to a chilled meat trade that will create jobs in the struggling manufacturing sector. Minister Joyce should accept Mr Burton’s request to speak about this economic opportunity.

5 comments:

  1. For what it's worth, I completely agree with you, Kevin. Good for you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This government has no moral compass and dont seem to be able to understand common sense. Animals need to be slaughtered as close to home as possible. The whole live export trade is a blight on Australia

    ReplyDelete
  3. Like the sale of LNG products overseas, it's because it's assumed that better prices will come from selling red meat offshore, even if it costs jobs and income here in Australia. Globalisation will be a benefit for third world countries, but at the cost of benefits being kept in Australia. The live export industry is causing the globalisation of animal welfare standards, that are forced to be lower than Australia's. No animal should be slaughtered without being first stunned, and religion or politics should not override this basic humane principle. If animal welfare activists and the livestock industry advocates are both united against live exports, it's time to listen! The industry can't self-regulate, and it's a lose-lose for Australia.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for alerting us to this unexplainable action by the Federal Government. Who voted this government into power anyway; the Australian people, or overseas interests? Why are they taking the cowardly route to appease overseas interests against Australian interests? This is unbelievable, and outrageous! Or, could it be, the Federal Government doesn't want Australian workers (and therefore unions) to have any jobs or say in the matter. The unions should really do something to rectify this matter - or, have they lost their courage - or, have they been taken over by the wrong people??!!
    Sounds like a conspiracy theory, but the evidence suggests otherwise.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I totally agree. More abattoirs in Northern Australia must be better for producers, animal welfare and the Australian economy.

    ReplyDelete