DAY three of the court case in the class action claim against the Commonwealth over the snap ban of live cattle trade to Indonesia six years ago will see presentation of the defence’s argument resume today.
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Former Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig who ordered the trade suspension for up to six months on July 6, 2011, may yet make an appearance as a witness during the Federal Court hearing in Sydney that’s scheduled to run another week and return in December.
The trial has also heard images broadcast in the ABC FourCorners program “A Bloody Business” a week before the ban was imposed, which exposed severe animal cruelty in selected Indonesian abattoirs - largely supplied by activists that had long-campaigned to ban the entire trade - that caused the groundswell of public anger which underpinned the government’s decision, could be shown before Justice Rares as evidence today.
Senior Counsel for the defendants Neil Williams said during yesterday’s opening of the commonwealth’s case that from the time of the FourCorners broadcast on May 30 2011, the then minister and government faced a series of policy choices around live exports.
“Until then, settled policy had been to support self-regulation,” he said.
But he said “In the wake of the reaction to Four Corners, self-regulation in respect of Indonesia was no longer a viable option”.
“The public reaction had been very strong and sustained,” he said.
Mr Williams said he was going to show Justice Rares some of those images that were “simply unacceptable” to the community and it wasn’t just those shown on Four Corners, “there was other material that was supplied and that Minister Ludwig viewed”.
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