"Minister Ludwig said industry groups - including LiveCorp, Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and the Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council (ALEC) - could have played a more constructive role in improving animal welfare standards leading up to the month-long June 2011 suspension and afterwards.
“Those bodies had an obligation to ensure that all the risks on behalf of producers were identified,” he said.
“They did need, in my view, to do more than what they did, both in the lead-up and post-suspension. LiveCorp, ALEC and MLA did not step in and take ownership of the problem and look at it in a way that would give the community confidence."
Wow.
That was all I could say when I first read these words in Colin Bettles’ article “I did the right thing: Ludwig” twelve months on from the live export ban.
While everything I’ve heard from industry points to a failure in government policy, these words from the Minister squarely point to the failure of our livestock industries to engage government properly as a contributing factor to the ban.
After all, the Minister is essentially saying that when producers needed their peak bodies to step up and represent them, they did not.
I don’t know if this is true, but it’s the Minister’s perception and that’s all that matters.
I know live export is a sensitive and complex issue and therefore hard to communicate in positive ways.
And yes, sometimes it’s easier just to keep your head down and hope the issue blows over.
And yes, it’s easier to brand our opponents the lunatic fringe and hope that serves as a suitable response to the issue.
But this only works if government understand and accept your side of the argument. Call it social licence if you like, but making sure key decision makers are fully informed about industry practices is critical to gaining their support.
The Minister, faced with highly damaging footage of animal cruelty, says he couldn’t get livestock peak bodies to take “ownership of the problem.” I find that shocking. Don't you?
I don’t think we can be surprised that he hit the “re-set” button on trade in these circumstances.
By the time of the live export ban Labor had been in power for four years. Sure, Ludwig had not been Agriculture Minister for that long, but FOUR YEARS is plenty of time to build relationships and gain support for our industries within goverment.
But for some reason it didn't happen. It was therefore inevitable when the footage became public on 4 Corners our livestock industries would be caught on the back foot.
It is possible for community views to be somewhat muted if industry has an effective government relations program. I have been involved in fighting campaigns designed to ban rice (and cotton) production in Australia. But all the campaigns, (mostly run by The Australian and the Adelaide Advertiser) while extremely distressing to growers, amounted to nothing because key decision makers understood the fundamentals of our industry. I was lucky because the rice industry had a strong record of building relationships with governments, oppositions and others to inform them about the rice industry’s place in Australia. They didn’t always support us, that's true, but they were always able to see the emotive arguments for what they were.
It's unacceptable in this instance that the Minister felt livestock peak bodies wouldn’t work constructively through what is a highly sensitive issue for many.
His words should serve as a wake up call to all of us who advocate on behalf of industry.
Yes, the government closed the export trade, but they’re not entirely to blame.
Click here to read Colin Bettles' full article
