The rush by Senator Ludwig to ban the live cattle trade was taken in haste and now I wonder if he is repenting at leisure. Cattle are stranded at shipping points and graziers are the victims of this poorly timed decision. The real victims of Ludwig’s decision are the people involved in the export industry who weren’t responsible for the mistreatment of any cattle and now their future livelihoods are at stake.
The “good” Senator has now come up with the classical socialist decision to fund the feeding of the stranded cattle. He now intends to force the Meat and Livestock Authority to hand over $5 million for the purpose. This is most outrageous at it wasn’t the MLA that made the decision to ban the trade. This proposed confiscation of wealth is like a house owner having to pay for the vandalism of their own home by an intruder.
Australia is in massive debt to the bankers and citizens aren’t responsible for that, but would the Gillard regime propose the confiscation of all private wealth in the country to pay off the bankers? Incidentally, all the private wealth in Australia is not sufficient to pay off the debt.
The animal rights people lobbied hard for years to get the live export trade banned and now that they have achieved their objective, maybe it is they that should be looking after the cattle and thus show some real concern for the situation that has developed.
Jay Nauss,
Glen Aplin