Live-ex ban debate still hot a decade after 2011 suspension

They probably turned up their noses when they read "Sydney journalist" in the panel description.

Having reported on the live export suspension four years earlier, I had been asked to share my insight on how the sector could engage Australia and the world about the industry.

Which channels of communication were having the most cut-through and how could producers get their message across to the public, the policy makers and customers?

So why in 2022 are we still having this conversation? And why should NSW primary producers care?

The Greens are back on the live export bandwagon, vowing to use the party's balance of power in the Senate "to push Labor further and faster" on the issue.

You'd have thought by now they (Labor and The Greens) would have learned this kind of thinking does more harm than good.

It's got the early hallmarks of 2011 where Labor was tempted by The Green vote rather than stepping back to see the bigger picture, which is going to require commonsense and pragmatism.

The then Labor agriculture minister, Joe Ludwig, reacted hastily with a knee-jerk suspension of Australia's live cattle exports to Indonesia following the 2011 ABC's Four Corners program that broadcast shocking images of cattle beaten and tortured in Indonesian abattoirs.

Look where that got them.

A six week suspension that cost the nation hundreds of millions.

It severed bilateral relations with our neighbours, a rift which has lasted years.

The importance of that relationship has since been highlighted on a more local level as we try and work with Indonesia on reining in foot and mouth and lumpy skin diseases.

While NSW is not biggest supplier to live-ex, when our sister states and territories lose that market, the backflow spills into our domestic markets.

In 2011 cattle prices dropped 15 cents a kilogram overnight.

There is no doubt the images were distressing. They were of cattle being whipped and kicked, their throats slit, eyes gouged and tails broken. But the 2011 ban was not just about that broadcast. There was a shift in social attitude that caught up with the industry and took it by surprise.

It also became a shake-up that has created lasting change.

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In 2015, four years after the suspension, the issue was still raw in the Top End. Speaking with station owners whose families had been involved in the industry for generations, they were horrified by the images.

They spoke about the social and economic impact from four years earlier that was still being felt.

And they spoke about how they were branded by Australian consumers.

On the other side of the ocean, Indonesian processors felt they too were tarred with the same brush as those shown in the footage.

At the centre of turning things around at the time was then Australian Livestock Exporters Council CEO Alison Penfold who helped to make the industry stronger and more transparent.

There were already steps in training people overseas in animal handling and there were in-country managers to ensure traceability.

They didn't pretend everything was fixed, but they were making the changes.

Indonesia adopted the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS) where exporters were required to ensure livestock were only slaughtered in facilities approved by this system.

Even renowned US animal welfare advocate Temple Grandin said the industry was on track after a tour of the Australian and Indonesian export chain in 2015.

She told those at Darwin's LiveXchange conference that she watched the process from start to finish, from loading the boats to the end game and all she could find was a few dirty pens in Indonesia.

This latest push to ban any type of live export will have a ripple effect across Australia.

Related reading: Labor's live-ex ban is 'ridiculous'

Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt describes the industry as an "important export earner, it's an important job creator and it plays a role in delivering food security in our region".

However, a void has once again emerged where the industry itself has not maintained its efforts to counter the often misleading anti-animal agriculture rhetoric.

The Greens won't stand down in its mission to get rid of live export. At the same time, the party also won't back off its 'no animals should be eaten' mantra.

The party has even gone as far as throwing around a survey it commissioned, from which it now claims more than half of Australians want the live export industry phased out within two years.

Clearly this survey gave the result The Greens wanted, that 26 per cent of Australians believe there should be an immediate ban on live export.

The live export industry in Australia cannot be complacent on this issue. It cannot leave its head in the sand and wait for Labor or The Greens to move on to the next issue.

To think the people who are pushing this agenda are just vegan-let's-not-eat-any-animals individuals is to deny the reality of the situation.

The people pushing this agenda are every bit as passionate about their cause as live exporters and the industry's cattle producers are of the live export industry.

Producers need to show these policy makers why boxed beef can't replace live animals.

The industry needs to change the dialogue, be proactive, instead of reactionary and provide Australians an understanding of why live exports are important.