Plans to place mandatory independent observers on all live export boats to leave Australia would have a significant impact on the North’s cattle trade, industry leaders warn.

They estimate the independent observer would need to be paid $1300 a day, while a business class flight to return to Australia would also need to be issued (really.?..even most specialist veterinarians travel economy as paid international speakers).

A senior industry source said the proposed costs for the regulation was not warranted. Well....that is patently not the case. We have just seen the cancellation of Emanuels licence over integrity issues. Emanuels is one of the largest export companies in this country and and certainly one of the most feted with its director inducted recently into the Live Ex Hall of Fame (before the second fall from grace....yep he was director of another company that had a licence suspension in 2003). 

Anyhow, we at VALE have a perfect solution. We could find vets who would be willing to travel for substantially less than that.....feel free to contact us!!!

Was it just a coincidence that the two Liberal "renegades" behind the private members live export bill have been given frontbench roles in the new cabinet?? Probably not....

Apparently both MPs are determined to work the change internally......and we wish them luck....but we (probably with most of the Australian population) dont have much confidence in that one. Unless they work some serious magic....it will be down to the ALP.....

Latest information suggests Kuwait Livestock Transport and Trading, which trades in Australia as RETWA, has also applied for an export licence.

So lets get everything quite clear here....
- RETWA operates out of the same address as Emanuels
- RETWA is the Australian subsidiary of KLTT
- KLTT owns the Al Messilah and the Al Shuwaikh, two of the main ships used by Emanuels
- in 2003, Mr Graham Daws was Managing Director of  RETWA when its licence was suspended by DAFF due to four high mortality shipments...
- during the RETWA suspension, Mr Daws was able to continue to export animals under an export licence held by Emanuel Exports Pty Ltd...a licence now cancelled.

Surely, a licence wont be granted to a company so intimately associated with another company that has just lost its licence? The public arent going to buy that one...

According to Tony Seabrook in The Countryman: 
"because of cultural reasons, and the lack of expensive refrigerated markets, many of the customers in these countries demand fresh meat that is generally eaten immediately after slaughtering, rather than chilled or frozen boxed exports".

But a couple of paragraphs later....he says:
"They [Middle Eastern countries] have also begun importing frozen boxed meats from other countries like Ireland, Canada, and China, rather than Australia, as retaliation for our cessation of sheep shipments in the lead-up to the annual Festival of the Sacrifice, or Eid al-Adha."

OK.....so they must have live meat (especially because of refrigeration issues!!!) BUT ....they are happy to suddenly import boxed meat from anywhere....except Australia.....which has been so busy concentrating on live ex that they have taken their eye off our much more lucrative ball, the boxed meat trade (worth billions not millions).

Sure Tony, we are missing out....because we have missed the boat blindly pursuing some anachronistic trade....whilst even countries like India have swept in under our radar (think boxed buffalo meat to Indonesia, even though refrigeration was supposedly such a cited issue in 2011 and note that India have just banned live ex during the Festival of Eid on ANIMAL WELFARE GROUNDS!!!). Yep we sure are an advanced and progressive nation looking after our animals and our farmers.

As is the case with low stress livestock animal handling: good animal welfare often goes hand in hand with good economics. Time we looked outside the square.

After a meeting with growers in Perth, Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud was unable to say whether Emanuel Exports would be given the right to export again according to Perth Now.

“That’s a matter for the independent regulator,” he said.
“They are facing serious matters.”

WA Farmers president Tony York apparently said it was “50/50” as to whether Emanuel Exports would be allowed to continue to trade.
“The minister made the point that suspension is a very serious step for the regulator to take so you can infer from that that it is serious,” he said.
“I would infer from that there’s no guarantee one way or the other.”

According to The Advocate, (and other media outlets), Deputy PM Michael McCormack dismissed the suggestion the end of the live export trade would lead to more processing jobs as the talk of people who were “sitting in their cafes in inner Melbourne and inner Sydney”.

“They quite frankly wouldn't know the difference between a hogget and a wether,” he said.

Hmm thats an interesting comparison Mr McCormack. The sex of a sheep before it is slaughtered and sold as hogget would  certainly be immaterial to any consumer ...but most discerning consumers in inner city Melbourne and Sydney would know that wethers can be slaughtered as hogget, lamb or mutton.....with many high end diners preferring hogget to lamb for flavour. Of course the somewhat arbitrary definition of hogget vs lamb actually changed in 2018.....maybe our Deputy PM just thought the city-kids werent up with the latest SPA definition of lamb vs hogget.....

Australia is the most urbanised country in the world...and those urban dwellers buy meat, eat meat, have discerning palates and vote....dont insult their intelligence Mr McCormack.

According to Sheep Central, waiting ships are costing $47000/day and the current bill of the impasse/licence suspension to Emanuels and their partners exceeds $4 million dollars. Guess they will just have to spend some of the  millions they have made out of this trade in animal suffering.....

Sheep Central has has reported on Littleproud's latest media release which essentially states that exporters need to demonstrate that they havent been "taking us for mugs" the whole time......well good luck on that one.....!!!!