...Why yes, “I am very fond of tea” said Alice to the Mad Hatter disguised as Julia.

The live trade export is a shame on the AUSTRALIAN public. What are we,barbarians, this sort of cruelty was accetable 600 years ago, in fact peole were treated exceptionally badly then but haven't we become civilised. A comment made on TV this morning by Barnany 'that Indonesains would not stop the crtuelty if we stop exporting livestock' is irrelevant. Those are two separate issues. If the Indonesians act this way then education is the only way forward, but for us to provide the 'fodder' for their cruelty is unaccetable. money taking priority over cruelty I DONT THINK SO. Establish an abatoir in Northern Australia. That would give a market for the cattlemen and work for locals. LIVE EXPORTS MUST STOP

No way around it we must take control.
We see SM talk about the 24 hour news cycle yet you and your mob farm it, saying things you do not believe putting confrontation in front of good policy's good government.
Yabby we from different sides of politics know this is wrong.
But while it is my team now, soon pushed and prodded by left of center people, it will be conservatives.
And for three terms, in office.
We do not need this new Australia party, we need the party's that represent 88% of us to do it.
Yes it must be fixed but now just watch, soon film footage of live sheep exports will appear.
Egypt, watch out a camera crew is coming to a place near you.
Radical committed radical vegans have found weapon.
Ludwig did what he had to, but unless he gets it fixed soon we will see true great pain even hunger for marginal farmers in this country while sheep and cattle travel even further by boats and die no differently than they did before this event.
Loony loony Lefty's no vision no understanding.

...Well…Living in Australia over the past eighteen months, I now know in what frame of mind was Lewis Carroll when he wrote “Alice in Wonderland”… How much madder will it get Julia...?

Do you all honestly think it was just a Government and RSPCA decision to ban live animal exports? They were under immense pressure.

The outcry is huge even outside these organisations.
No one can say that a Liberal government wouldn't also have folded under the massive outcry.

I do feel sorry for the Australian farmers, but they should reserve their anger for the disgusting Indonesian abattoirs.

This is what happens when an organisation picks up on one aspect of an issue and ignores the others. I haven't seen the documentary, so I don't know its scope. I have, on several occasions, had the (dis)pleasure of smelling the ships as they sit in the port, gradually being loaded up with cattle. It isn't pleasant, and I'd imagine the conditions on board aren't so great. In that regard, and where some destinations are concerned, I'd say the RSPCA are well within their field of expertise.

Where they are overreaching is in their one-eyed attack on a whole economic process. It would be grand to say "let's stop live trade" and not have to think about the consequences. Sadly, for all concerned, there ARE consequences. As Yabby and Belly point out, live trade is a crucial part of our livestock industry. Maybe it can be cleaned up, but banning it outright would be disastrous. The RSPCA should be looking at ways of improving animal welfare within existing systems rather than throwing those systems in the "too hard" basket and pushing for them to be outlawed altogether.