The footage, of the inside several Indonesian abattoirs, shows cattle being maltreated horridly, then slaughtered in a most inhumane manner.
These are allegedly cattle sold from Australia to buyers in Indonesia.
Otherwise somnambulant members of the viewing public are horrified by the video footage, and demand that all sales of cattle to Indonesia cease immediately.
The government halts all cattle sales to Indonesia.
Thus purely as a reaction to mob outrage, the government switches off an industry just as thoughtlessly as one would switch off a light. A mob outrage that was in turn fuelled by something they saw on their TV screen, footage that the programme had possessed yet not broadcast, for several months.
The government is supposed to be a steady hand at such times. To not give in to uninformed dribbling by urban ingenues.
Putting people out of work, destroying an industry, causing hardship on an epic scale, all in one move, is an act of such gravitas that it demands careful consideration before enacting. Instead it was done with callous disregard for consultation or due process. It wasn't even an informed decision.
This action, if the Prime Minister knew the implications, was an act of pure evil.
.....it is the Prime Minister's job to appraise themself of the implications of any such action.
The entire northern part of the nation is reliant upon selling young feeder cattle to Indonesian buyers. There will be bankruptcies galore, privation & poverty among some of the hardest working & most self-reliant people the nation has.
For the cattlemen of the north, there are no alternative markets. They are doomed.
Oh, and Indonesia will have its nose out of joint. Our 2nd nearest neighbour, prickly to deal with at the best of times, has just had trade cut off (guillotine fashion) without even consultation.
2 comments:
I turned on the ABC news for the first time in several years this morning - I watched a very hoity-toity woman say, "We should slaughter all the cattle here and ship frozen meat to Indonesia". No one bothered to point out to her that only the richest 10% of Indonesian's have a fridge. I wonder if anyone at the ABC realises that too?
I'm waiting for Gillard to announced, "Let them eat tofu sausages".
The farmers go broke and the Indonesians will come and buy the farms, breed the cattle and take it back home without anybody here getting anything out of it! Good work Julia...
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