FORMER Shadow Agriculture Minister John Cobb has refuted comments by former New England Independent MP Tony Windsor suggesting the Coalition supported a full ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia in June 2011.
Mr Windsor attacked Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce over controversial statements he made last night during the regional leaders’ debate hosted by the ABC in Goulburn.
The Agriculture and Water Resources Minister sparked uproar after suggesting Indonesia responded to the “bad will” caused by the snap cattle trade suspension by sending more asylum seeker boats to Australia.
However, Mr Joyce sought to clarify his words today saying asylum seekers from Indonesia prior to the ban was 14,000 but 40,000 turned up in Australia afterwards.
“Obviously it didn't help our capacity in how we negotiate with a country when we've just shut down one of their prime mechanisms of getting protein into their diet,” he said.
Mr Windsor is seeking to reclaim his former NSW rural seat from Mr Joyce at this election and subsequently used the comments to accuse his rival of being an unfit character to represent New England.
At a media conference in Tamworth, he partly read a motion for a debate held in the House of Representatives on June 20, 2011 that was raised by Mr Cobb when he was the Coalition’s Shadow Agriculture Minister.
Mr Windsor played down the suspension which occurred when he held the balance of power in the Lower House in the Gillard government saying it was “temporary” and only for one month.
“In the middle of that ban the National Party’s John Cobb gave a motion to the parliament where he says, and the motion reads, ‘This house deplores the inhumane treatment of cattle at some abattoirs in Indonesia; notes that this is (unacceptable) to all Australians especially our farmers who take great pride in breeding and raising healthy and well cared for animals’,” he said.
Mr Windsor said the motion also stated the National party “Mr Joyce’s people” had supported the suspension of trade of Australian live cattle to facilities that failed to comply with acceptable practices.
“Now what Mr Joyce did last night was prove that he is unfit to be in a leader’s debate – he is unfit to be a leader,” he said.
“He has insulted Indonesia – our nearest neighbour.
“To insult them again to suggest that they retaliated to Minister Ludwig’s suspension of the live export trade at that particular time is an absolute insult and is part of a sport of an opportunistic process that this man goes through.”
However, Mr Cobb said Mr Windsor had misrepresented the Coalition’s position and failed to acknowledge other critical events that occurred when the suspension was handed down.
He said the ALP had initially announced a trade halt to 10 Indonesian abattoir facilities identified in the ABC Four Corners broadcast of May 30, 2011 that started the public uproar.
But the Gillard government then imposed a full market suspension of up to six months which included cutting cattle supply to abattoir facilities where animal welfare practices already complied with accepted international standards, he said.
Mr Cobb said Mr Windsor was fabricating the Coalition’s position and trying to justify the fact he actually supported the Gillard government’s live cattle ban or did nothing to prevent it.
“At no stage did I or the Coalition ever say that we supported the full ban,” he said.
“There’s no way I supported a full ban but our line was always that we did support stopping supply to those abattoirs where poor animal welfare practices were occurring.”
Mr Cobb said while Mr Joyce’s comments on asylum seekers were “somewhat strange” he agreed the Indonesian cattle suspension had strained diplomatic and trade ties between the two countries.
”It made everything we dealt with Indonesia that much harder,” he said.
But Mr Windsor said the Coalition had agreed with the suspension and called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to calm the waters with Indonesia by apologising for the minister’s “brain explosion”.
“This statement will do far more damage than anything Minister Ludwig did at the time,” he said.
“They don’t have to take our product - we need them more than they need us - so to insult them in this way I think is deplorable.
“If I was in the cattle industry and I actually happen to be in the cattle industry, I would be appalled by this because these very statements could provoke the Indonesians to retaliate not with boats but with a reduction in the quota (on cattle imports).
“These people won’t keep taking insults from us.
“We need a government that’s stable and can actually deal with the Indonesians on a diplomatic level – Malcolm Turnbull can do that.”
Mr Windsor said if Indonesia was offended by the comments, its response would not be “by boats” but a reduction in cattle quota numbers, to send a message that they “won’t be trivialised”.
Mr Cobb’s motion from June 2011 said the suspension of trade of Australian live cattle to facilities that failed to comply with acceptable practices was supported and “notes with concern the impact of a total live exports suspension to Indonesia”.
It listed those impacts including; the economic, social and environmental fabric of northern Australia; indigenous employment in northern Australia; Indonesian abattoirs already operating at acceptable standards; and the entire cattle Industry including producers in the south who are already seeing reduced saleyard prices.
It also called on the Government to: immediately establish a register of Indonesian abattoirs that have adopted and implemented acceptable animal welfare standards; require that Australian sourced cattle be processed only at abattoirs that are listed on the register; revoke the legislative instrument Export Control (Export of Live-stock to the Republic of Indonesia) Order 2011 upon one or more Indonesian abattoirs being included on the register; provide support to Indonesia to bring more abattoirs up to acceptable standards; and provide assistance to the cattle industry to deal with the consequences of this suspension.