Public opinion at Ekka - cattle producers concerned over sheep live ex shutdown
Ekka attendees share their views on the potential shutdown of sheep live exports, highlighting the impact it could have on the industry.
Transcript
00:00I think cattle producers and everyone in the Australian economy should be worried when we have governments closing down viable trades.
00:07Governments are there to create opportunities, not close opportunities.
00:12And it's a really challenging circumstance when you see, despite the science, despite the incredible data,
00:19and the absence of all of that that's in favour of sheep and agriculture, we're seeing governments close viable trades.
00:26We have a large market still with live export, and I don't think we're going to be downgrading our amount of cattle that's going to be sent overseas just yet.
00:36But it is definitely to think about, because obviously if they can do it to sheep, if they can do it to other animals, it can happen to us.
00:43So it is a bit of a scary thing to think about, but I think we're safe for now.
00:47We should be aware that people are trying to stop it and do everything we can to keep it going.
00:54They've just got to be diligent in what they do, I suppose, and do everything by the book and make sure it's right, so that there's no cause to stop it.
01:01It's a large part of the market, especially for the northern end of Australia.
01:04And when it did get banned, it was only a small issue that was actually shut the whole lot down.
01:11It was a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to when they shut it down.
01:13So it's definitely a large part of it, and they need to take it seriously.