Cattle producers have taken extreme offense to Agriculture Minister Murray Watt's attack on the lawyers involved in a live export class action against the Commonwealth.
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His assertions that his government can not look taxpayer's in the eye and pay out the claim amount being asked have fuelled so much resentment that The National Farmers' Federation have questioned his insistence he 'always advocates for the agriculture sector'.
In a furious letter to the Minister, NFF president David Jochinke said the Australian farming community had had enough of the delays in this case and of the "obfuscation and attrition and the cost and pain".
Mr Jochinke slammed the "looking taxpayers in the eye" statement as hypocritical, pointing out the interest and lawyers' fees the taxpayer was currently footing because the Commonwealth was delaying settling was massive and increasing with each passing day.
"And more to the point, how can you look farmers in the eye when they continue to suffer?" he asked.
The intensity of the distaste in the bush for the way the Commonwealth has handled the live-ex class action compensation has prompted agripolitical watchers to remark Mr Watt will bury his career if he doesn't stop trying to defend the indefensible.
Four years ago a Federal Court found the live cattle ban imposed by the Labor Government in 2011 was unlawful and made capriciously and irrationally. That paved the way for the hundreds of beef industry people who are members of the class action to receive compensation.
However, they are still waiting.
Mr Watt was grilled, in a recent senate estimates hearing, on what producers see as the Commonwealth's deliberate court stalling tactics in reaching a settlement.
He said questions needed to be asked of the lawyers handling the case and that the judge had described the argument it was worth $1.2 billion as absurd.
Mr Jochinke said those comments were cherrypicked and were not a fair reflection of the class's claim or the efforts it had made to attempt to reach a sensible negotiated outcome.
"An objective observer, let alone a legally-qualified minister should find it inappropriate to rely on the impressionistic comments made by a judge prior to his consideration of the relevant evidence," Mr Jochinke wrote.
He accused Mr Watt of "seeking to unproductively deflect blame and the failings of the Labor Government onto the class and their lawyers".
Shan Goodwin
Shan Goodwin steers ACM’s national coverage of the beef industry. Shan has worked as a journalist for 30 years, the majority of that with agricultural publications. She spent many years as The Land’s North Coast reporter and has visited beef properties and stations throughout the country and overseas. She treats all breeds equally. Contact 0427686187. E: s.goodwin@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Shan Goodwin steers ACM’s national coverage of the beef industry. Shan has worked as a journalist for 30 years, the majority of that with agricultural publications. She spent many years as The Land’s North Coast reporter and has visited beef properties and stations throughout the country and overseas. She treats all breeds equally. Contact 0427686187. E: s.goodwin@austcommunitymedia.com.au
