New McDonald has a farm E I E I O – and she is a woman, operates a successful butcher retail business in the state’s capital, has a family and is a modern working mum.
Exactly the type of person you want representing all Queenslanders in the Senate and all LNP members should count their blessings that she made herself available.
I cannot understand how the selection of a successful person has created some angst among some members of the LNP when she won the ballot honestly and openly and by convention. The senator elect has a pioneering pedigree and rural history in north western Queensland.
One has to say the prospective senator is ‘bred for politics’ from a family that is committed to service not only to local politics but state and now federal. The latest from inside the LNP bunker is that the senator in waiting should move to Townsville.
Why? She will be a senator for all of Queensland and has the right to stay where she is currently residing with her family. She will be an advocate for all of us no matter where she is domiciled.
Now Ag Minister Littleproud is copping some dissension for supposedly encouraging members to support her nomination and ultimately her selection. What is the problem? If you want great outcomes for all Queenslanders, it all starts with having the right people and obviously Littleproud has identified her as ideal for a position in the federal senate chamber, support is not a crime.
There is little doubt that if Susan McDonald and family had not invested in purchasing the meat retailing business Super Butcher a number of years ago, the business would not be thriving as it is today providing hundreds of jobs and quality Aussie beef and lamb to the greater Brisbane area.
Having never met Susan McDonald, and I most likely never will, to me she is the type of person we need to have in Canberra representing all of Queensland.
The prime and store cattle market is showing resilience to the upside, despite the prolonged drought. The herd rebuild is obviously slowing across the eastern states due to the disastrous seasonal conditions as more females are being marketed, especially in the southern states.
CFA cows with weight and cover have improved in every physical market this week with Roma topping at 250c/kg, Gracemere selling to 235c/kg and Emerald on Thursday getting the best of the cows to 238c/kg.
Southern processors have entered the market looking for numbers out of Queensland as the southern markets have seen improvements of up to 20c/kg for heavy cattle across the board in some centres.
We have more than 1 million cattle on feed, and have had for most of 2018, and while carcase weights are on the rise the cost of grain is squeezing margins.
The only possible headwind for the market as I see it is that US production is at, or nearing, record levels and this could potentially provide a hand-break to price increases for manufacturing beef as the year progresses.
The trade war between China and the US may provide some favourable opportunities for our agriculture products and this combined with some economists suggesting the Aussie dollar could land closer to 70 cents by year’s end, may soften the impact of increased US beef production.
Speaking of quality real Aussie beef and lamb, Woolworths continues to have the artificial “minced” (containing absolutely nil meat products) product disguised on shelves in the fresh meat department.
The product is imported from Denmark, which should make it terminal.
Health wise, it fails. According to the Australian Heart Foundation, we should “try to avoid products with more than 400mg of sodium per 100g”.
“Minced” has more like 480mg of sodium per 100g. Real Aussie mince has 50mg of sodium per 100g.
Some of the reports I have received from those who have tried this product, indicate to me that this product will have a “short shelf life”, and it retails at $20/kg … for what?
