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Labour's Joel Fitzgibbon
NORTHERN TERRITORY cattle producers have launched a class action over the former Federal Government’s ban on live exports to Indonesia in 2011.
It’s been lodged in the Federal Court by lawyers Minter Ellison, and seeks compensation for losses incurred.
Opposition agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon admits Labor could have consulted more widely with the cattle industry prior to imposing a ban on live exports in 2011. He told ABC Rural that in the lead-up to the ban, he “found it difficult to believe” there wasn’t a way of working in partnership with the sector in the first instance.
“At the time there could’ve been more consultation with the sector... the National Farmers Federation and various cattlemen’s groups.”
The class action could run into hundreds of millions of dollars and is open to an unlimited number of claimants in the industry.
In 2011 the trade was brought to a sudden halt after film of cruelty to cattle in Indonesia caused public outrage.
For three years the industry has sought compensation outside court without success. An independent evaluation of the case by former judge Roger Gyles QC, commissioned by Minter Ellison, found the decision by the then agriculture minister Joe Ludwig was invalid.
Gyles said it has a meaningful prospect of liability being established because the order was an irrational and unreasonable response to the circumstances and went beyond anything recommended by the department.
Gyles also described the move as ‘reckless’, but Fitzgibbon rejects that suggestion.
He points to the former Labor Government’s introduction of the livestock exporters supply chain assurance scheme (ESCAS) as a benefit that followed the ban. And he argues that the Howard Government had failed to take appropriate action following the ban on the live sheep trade in 2006.
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