In May 2011, ABC's Four Corners program aired an exposé on the mistreatment of Australian livestock by rogue abattoirs in Indonesia. Following the airing of this program there was a large public outcry at how and why Australian cattle could be treated so poorly. There were calls to ban Australia's live cattle exports and following a snap decision by the Australian Government, exports to Indonesia were suspended while an inquiry was undertaken.
While it may be shocking that some of our cattle were being mistreated, in the days that followed it was shown that only a handful of rogue abattoirs were abusing the cattle and that not all abattoirs were to blame. The suspension became a PR nightmare for the Gillard Government and also increased trade tensions between our nearest neighbour to the north.
A forum in Mt. Isa during the suspension attracted hundreds of graziers directly affected by the bans who were furious at the Government for their knee-jerk reaction in response to the Four Corners footage. Australia's live export trade is a half-billion-dollar industry and keeps a lot of Aussies employed in jobs year round. Many Aussie cattle families were almost sent to the wall when the suspension was announced. It not only directly affected the livelihoods of the families raising the cattle, but also indirectly with the flow on effect to the small farming centres who relied on the income that the live export trade produces.
The suspension was lifted and trade resumed to Indonesia in July after the Government was satisfied that the rogue abattoir operators had been dealt with by Indonesian authorities.
I don't like seeing any animal being mistreated, no one in their right mind would disagree with that statement. However, calls to ban an entire industry because of a small number of rogue operators is not the right decision. It seems that when something goes wrong in our society the first order of business is to immediately ban something or make it illegal.
Why not take a step back and evaluate the situation first. Banning live exports from Australia will not stop the abuse, our trading partners will simply source their live cattle from elsewhere and continue on as usual. These countries want live cattle so they can follow their traditional and customary beliefs involved with the slaughter of their food. I'm not one for a religious battle, what people believe is their business and why should we interfere with the belief system of another country?
The other major reason for exporting live cattle and sheep is that these countries often do not have the adequate cold storage facilities and reliable power we take for granted here in Australia. The animals are kept alive until they are required for slaughter. As I said earlier, in the end, they'd simply source their live product elsewhere, the abuse would continue and we'd be powerless to intervene.
So instead of banning, what's the alternative solution? It's called co-operation. We have plenty of skilled abattoir workers in Australia and with Government assistance, putting into practice more humane methods for slaughter works to everyones advantage. There was talk of shipping stun guns to the overseas abattoirs, the same stun guns used in Australia. With proper methods in place, it reduces the risk that animals will be abused in the future and means that standards will be upheld, jobs not put at risk and an industry continues to prosper.
A little bit of diplomacy goes a long way to resolving problems. Australia is on pretty good terms with the great majority of its trading partners, to simply flush that down the toilet and aggrovate and entire country because a small handful of rogue operators have done wrong is just not sensible at all.
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I'd also like to add that while people condemn our live exports and the way animals are slaughtered overseas you might want to take a step back into reality. How do you think the meat that sits in packages on our supermarket shelves got there? While we've got very strict regulations surrounding our abattoirs, none the less the animals slaughtered for human consumption in our own backyard go through a lot of the same process.
I never thought I would get involved and love something as much as I do about roller derby. I'd heard about roller derby and I knew what it was before I joined, but I didn't think too much of it at the start of 2011.
In the line at the store the cashier told the old woman that plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The woman apologised to her and explained, “We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.” 
