Well, there we go, suspension of live exports worked

[Super Nova]

So, it hasn't changed at all? evidnce?

I couldn't say either way. All I know is that Cattle Council president Greg Brown saying "Hey guys everything is cool in Indonesia now. These are not the droids you're looking for." is a complete non-story.

Hi Matt. How's it going?

Monk (Maxine) always asks for evidence without every providing any of value himself.

[boxy]

... remember that when the trade started up, thousands of Australian abattoir workers lost their livelihoods.

Really? We were exporting equal amounts of meat to the middle east and Indonesia before the live trade started?

Na... it was a relatively new market, that increased it's meat consumption rather than switched from Australian meat imports to live imports.

If the government had any guts - they would have done what the majority of people wanted -stopped the trade permanently.

Mob rulez, ok?

[mantra]

... remember that when the trade started up, thousands of Australian abattoir workers lost their livelihoods.

Really? We were exporting equal amounts of meat to the middle east and Indonesia before the live trade started?

Na... it was a relatively new market, that increased it's meat consumption rather than switched from Australian meat imports to live imports.

The live trade is predominantly responsible for the closure of dozens of abattoirs. See article below.

If the government had any guts - they would have done what the majority of people wanted -stopped the trade permanently.

Mob rulez, ok?

We are exporting jobs. There is no longer the supply here and we are also forced to pay higher prices because of the short supply and high demand locally. The live export trade really doesn't benefit anyone except Live Corp. I'm not even sure if the farmers are paid more for their stock.

The Australian Meat Workers Union estimates that 70 abattoir closures and the loss of up to 12,000 jobs are directly attributable to the live export trade.

The closure of abattoirs has occurred due to inadequate supplies of sheep and cattle, competition for animals with the live export industry buyers and thus higher prices, which make local slaughter uncompetitive.

Local abattoir closures do not only affect individual abattoir workers. The loss of employment created by a major industry, with the resultant departure of families forced to leave to seek employment elsewhere - affects the viability of all local businesses in small rural and regional towns.

Some producers, particularly some large cattle producers in the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia, have deliberately geared themselves to produce animals specifically for the live export market. By restructuring to cater for the live export market, they have stopped supplying animals to local abattoirs and caused the abattoirs to shut down.

http://www.stopliveexports.org/about-st ... onomy.html

[boxy]

What a load of unionite guff.

Australia can produce more than enough meat animals to supply both our domestic market and the live export... it's just that the abs wont pay the producers enough to make it worth their while. This is a combination of high wages and the supermarkets/consumers screwing the prices down.

Stopping the live export wont see more meat produced for the local market (in the long term)... it'll just see less meat produced. And less employment on the cattle stations.

[The Artist formerly known as Sappho]

Stopping the live export wont see more meat produced for the local market (in the long term)... it'll just see less meat produced. And less employment on the cattle stations.

Such is the nature of the elasticity of supply and demand. But more than that boxy... because the economy of scale has been reduced, the operation costs increase which means higher prices for the consumer.