Cattle claimants 'bitterly disappointed' after court downplays compensation claim from live export ban

Australia Broadcast Center

4 hours ago

Northern cattle producers say they are "bitterly disappointed", after a federal court decision downplayed the scale of their claimed losses following the 2011 live cattle export ban.
Fourteen years on from the ban that started it all, and five years after winning their class action against the federal government, hundreds of claimants had been seeking $510 million in compensation, plus costs and interest, from the Commonwealth.
The group includes cattlemen, trucking companies, livestock agents and shippers whose lives and businesses were up-ended after the ABC's Four Corners aired evidence of animal cruelty in Indonesian abattoirs, prompting the then-Labor government to issue a temporary ban on the live export trade.
Late last week, the Federal Court's Justice Thawley concluded that exports to Indonesia were already in "steep decline" leading up to Australia's temporary ban.
"Indonesia had pursued a beef self-sufficiency policy for many years, but it was pursued with renewed vigour under the new program, which began in January 2010," he said.
"The court has concluded that the decision to set the quotas at the levels they were set were not affected in any material way by the ban.
Northern Territory cattle producers are still digesting the judgement, but have pushed back against the court's conclusion that the temporary ban played a limited role in the subsequent decline in exports to Indonesia.
"We're bitterly disappointed about the ruling," said David Connolly, former president of the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association, and someone who has been closely involved in the class action.
"We deal one-on-one with the people who import our cattle … we know how the customer reacted, but it's very difficult to prove that in court."
The court is yet to determine how much compensation is due to the industry, and the parties will confer by June 18, with court orders to follow.
"I don't know what that number might look like – it might look like $300 milllion, $400 million, or $500 million, but that's something to be determined to be determined down the track," Mr Connolly said.
"We'll take some advice, we'll read the Justice's rulings, but we'll certainly consider an appeal."
On May 30, 2011, ABC's Four Corners broadcast shocking footage from inside Indonesian slaughterhouses. It showed Australian cattle being kicked, struggling while retrained by ropes, and being slaughtered without having been stunned.
In response, and under political pressure, then-agriculture minister Joe Ludwig announced a ban on June 7, prohibiting the export of live cattle to Indonesia – Australia's largest market.
Overnight, a roughly $400 million industry was shut down, and hundreds of thousands of cattle were stranded in Australia.
The ban only lasted six weeks, but the industry claimed it cost hundreds of millions of dollars and devastated businesses.
Their criticism was that the government had completely failed to consult with the industry and Indonesia over the animal cruelty concerns.
The Labor government initiated an independent review and industry support packages, but in 2014 a 300-strong class action began, seeking $510 million in compensation for lost income as a result of the ban.
The lead plaintiff was the Brett Cattle Company.
"We suffered immense financial hardship because of the ban, so much stress, it was overwhelming at times," Emily Brett told the ABC in 2020.
In June 2020, the Federal Court's Justice Steven Rares found that former agriculture minister Joe Ludwig acted with misfeasance, in banning cattle exports in 2011.
Justice Rares said the the blanket ban had been "invalid and capricious".
"I am comfortably satisfied, based on the whole of the evidence, that the minister was recklessly indifferent as to first, the availability of his power to make the ban order in its absolutely prohibitory terms without providing any power of exception and, secondly, as to the injury which the order, when effectual, was calculated to produce," he said.
"Accordingly, the minister committed misfeasance in public office when he made the ban order on June 7, 2011."
The current Labor government offered "a very substantial settlement offer of $215 million" within months of taking office in 2022, but no settlement was reached.
The Brett family was later awarded nearly $3 million in compensation, but the hundreds of other claimants have had to wait.
Former NT Cattlemen's Association chief executive Will Evans said the process has been "disgraceful".
"We're bringing all guns blazing and will take [the government] for every cent we can," he told the ABC earlier this year.
Since the Four Corners episode aired in 2011, an Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS) has been introduced, and after a slump, the live export trade with Indonesia has recovered.
In 2024, live cattle exports grew by 13 per cent to 766,044 head, the second consecutive year of growth. Indonesia now accounts for 70 per cent of Australia's live cattle exports.
Industry peak bodies say the trade, both directly and indirectly, contributes billions to the Australian economy and employs more than 6,500 people.
Australia has been putting farm animals on boats and sending them out to sea since the 1830s.
One senate report from the 1980s reviewing the trade of live sheep to the Middle East captures the ongoing ethical tension of the live export trade.
"If a decision were to be made on the future of the trade purely on animal welfare grounds, there is enough evidence to stop the trade," the report said.
But the committee "agreed that the animal welfare aspects of the trade cannot be divorced from economic and other considerations".
"After consideration of all factors, the committee acknowledges the reality of the situation that any short-term cessation or disruption to the trade would cause considerable dislocation both in Australia and in the Middle East."