I disagree. The suspension of live exports is the best thing that the Gillard government's done: It demonstrated to the industry, both here and in Indonesia, in no uncertain terms that the Australian government is prepared to act decisively on animal welfare issues. Oddly, the industry managed to do more with respect to humane slaughter in a couple of weeks than they'd managed in the decade before.

With respect to asylum seekers, the government acted ethically in removing the cruel 'Pacific Solution', but is now backsliding according to the dictates of the focus groups who actually run the country. If they go ahead and reinstate Howard's policy somewhere like Malaysia, they will be seen to be both weak and heartless.

I agree that we have to get off our dependence on oil and coal, both domestically for energy and internationally our participation in the cheap coal trade. We're like pushers selling coal like crack cocaine to the developing world, notably China. If we were half smart we'd at least put severe restrictions on the trade to preserve unrenewable resources and force the price up to something reswembling its real cost. An eventual ETS wpuld help in that respect.

If the Gillard government follows up the carbon tax and enforces regulation of standards in live exports with some more positive legislation, who knows - they may even have a chance at the next election!

Morg what it shows it further evidence of a government lacking from both confidence and know how.

Sure, there were issues with some 12 a bbs, or so. However, there were also more than 700 that ere doing the right thing in our eyes, yet, these fools chose to shut the whole thing down.

more so, they have reopened it without achieving much.

Just imagine if your local council banned all dogs simply because 12 out of some 800 were barking. In essence, this is what these fools have done here, only, they have done little to stop the barking dogs.

@ rehctub:

I think you've got that about exactly arse-up. It was about 12 Indonesian abattoirs doing the right thing versus 700 contravening minimum animal welfare standards. Now they're all motivated to lift their game, if they want to source their stock in Australia.

Like I said, it was a good result.

Hay Morgan, would you like to suggest what we should do to earn a living, & pay all those academics, & bureaucrats, & their future pensions.

You want to close down coal; Don't get coal seam, or shale gas going; Close down live exports; Stop grazing cows, to stop the farting of methane; Don't harvest any timber, & on it goes.

Please pray tell, what should we do to earn a living? We won't even be able to take in the bureaucrats washing, there won't be any money to pay them anyway.

Well being in the meat industry I doubt I have got it A- up as you suggest.

I to would like to know just were our wealth will come from?

Do you drive a car?

Do you drive that car on any man made roads.

Do you live in a house that is not a whole in the ground?

Do you have power on at your house?

Do you have ANY appliances that were manufactured?

Now if you answer yes to any of these questions, then why do you want to deny future
and existing generations from the benefits that you were given from having these little lux's

@ rehctub:

Being in the meat industry, I shouldn't be surprised that you apparently base your knowledge on meat industry spin. You seem to confuse the initial ban on 11 abattoirs that were the subject of the 4 Corners report with a completely unsupported assertion that all the rest operate according to acceptable standards. The ban has now been provisionally lifted on 25 of them that appear to meet international standards, but the other 575 are yet to be inspected.

From that, you assert that "there were also more than 700 that ere (sic) doing the right thing in our eyes" on the basis of such partial information. How can you know that, given they haven't even been inspected?

You employ similarly flawed logic when it comes to your list of questions. Of course, like most Australians, I live in a house, drive a car on the road, and own various appliance. As a member of the 'baby boomer' generation I am part of the cohort that has squandered finite resources and destroyed the environment at a higher per capita basis than ever before.

However, unlike you I take on board the masses of evidence that we simply can't keep on going the way we are sustainably. Far from denying my children and their descendants anything, I want them to inherit a world that isn't an overcrowded, polluted, overheated wreck of what it once was.

(Continues...)