I think you have forgotten that the people of Australia want NO live export to any country. As the live export is to Muslim countries and we are pandering to their ideas of how to treat animals (which we have seen with both sheep exports and cattle exports how deplorable this is) it is time Australia said NO to all live export.
If the only way the meat industry can make money is by live export then we have come to a time to say Australia is no longer able to be proud of the people on the land.
We do not have a very good reputation for treating our farm animals well in Australia let alone shipping them to places where both Australians and live stock mean nothing to these people

No, Senator Joyce, suspending cruelty will not antagonise our neighbour, they will learn to live with it. And our beef industry will deal with it. I am no inner-city do-gooder, I grew up on a beef cattle property and I know about animals. I know they have awareness and emotions. We as humans ignore that at our peril. You have much to fight that is wrong with this incompetent government, but if you fail to support the most vulnerable of our creatures, you will lose vast credibility in this country.

I just heard your comments on Triple J about how stopping live exports is penalising individuals doing the right thing and affecting relationships with Indonesia. Who are the people doing the right thing? As far as I am concerned and after researching the matter everyone involved is in the wrong. Who cares about Indonesia they are horrible people for doing this to animals why the hell should they be treated like a charity case. Ban all live exports and stop the greed at the expense of an innocent animal being treated so bad. I pay my taxes and I am furious that my tax monies fund the equipment used to torture animals. All of you politicians care about is money it is disgusting. Get a heart you arrogant person.

Mr Joyce,
I have always thought you were a bit of a twit, however, your stance with respect to the banning of animals to be exported to Indonesia shows you to be morally retarded as well as intellectually bankrupt.

I think we already know the true agenda of Animals Australia.

Instead of just insisting on humane practices in abattoirs, they won't stop complaining until all of the livestock industries grind to a halt as per the international Red/Green/ Black Pagan Carbon Religion agenda.

While I would like to see all food animals humanely slaughtered by Australia abattoir workers, thereby keeping work in Australia, completing canning the live export trade overnight is an exercise in stupidity.

Labor has clearly not given any thought to international diplomacy, respect for the livelihoods of Australian graziers, or Indonesians who might starve due to unemployment or lack of availability of the best protein source available.

I have just read the rest of these comments.

Some people need to find some manners and look at this issue on a more holistic basis.

I think Barnaby knows much more than we do about the man (and the animal) on the land, as well as issues of trade and diplomacy. I think his comments are valid and broadly based.

On TV we often see Green extremists criticising our farmers and graziers, but if we all tune into "Landline" on ABC1 at noon on Sundays, we will find out about the various initiatives that are in place to improve conditions for animals and protect the environment.

If we keep listening to Animals Australia and allow them to prosecute their neo-communist agenda to wipe out the livestock industries and force us onto a low protein, peasant style diet, we will soon find out what personal hardship is.

There is a humane way of slaughtering cattle and that's the bottom line. Indonesians have a brain they know what's right and wrong and what they are doing is clearly wrong. Why should we sympathise that they will loose their jobs they should not be doing this in the first place. This issue has been going on for years and finally it has been exposed. You people think this ban is ridiculous but it's not, animals deserve better they have feelings. I think people forget that they wouldn't treat their pet this way so how is it any different? The Indonesians will get over it after all the Australian Government throws millions of dollars at them all the time when our hospital system is in third world country state. Any descent person would not want their animals to be treated this way except the greedy and the politicians who only care about money. Also people are forgetting that it is not just the slaughter process it's also how the animals are transported from the ship, some are dragged behind cars to their destination, wake up and ban all live cattle export keep the jobs in Australia. Indonesia dont deserve our cattle, those people deserve to starve.

ANIMAL CRUELTY is ANIMAL CRUELTY dress it up put a box in the shed and stamp on it Meat & Livsetock Australia, hello it's still cruelty. WOW it is going to hurt you big cattle station guys but here's the issue it's taken you 18 years and you still wouldn't do anything, WELL now it's hitting you in the hip pocket, WHERE IT HURTS THE FARMER, you turned your backs at your own peril. GOOD WORK animals australia.

Has anyone considered that Indonesia might simply purchase its beef on the hoof from somebody else, leaving Australia without a market?

Could this be Labor's latest attack on the Australian economy, for which somebody should be charged with treason?

If Australia doesn't have a market with Indonesia so be it. Stop the greed and let the animals stop being tortured. This country is backwards all we care about is money. The farmers that still want to send cattle to Indonesia are sick they should loose all of their business. No descent person would allow this to happen to an animal. Sorry Lorikeet that we actually have a heart and care about animals you are obviously not a nice person. How dare you tell us to get some manners how about you stop criticising Animal Welfare organizations they have seen more than you have to do with this situation. I am an accountant not a hippy and I know the difference between right and wrong and so should you. Animal cruelty is WRONG and I hope all live exports are stopped forever. Too bad to all of those greedy people they will get their Karma.

Why should the Australian cattleman be punished for the behaviour of Muslim slaughtermen in another country?This is a very dangerous precedent we as a nation are setting.

I hope you read these comments Barnaby, because I would like your comment on the current situation in Libya, where we have our government's support for human beings being ripped to shreds by bombs & missiles while an entire industry has been thrown into chaos over the mistreatment of cattle.

And if you give me the UN resolution, Gaddafi criminal terrorist, humanitarian line I will lose much respect for you. And unlike the rest of your commenters I AM a sheep & cattle producer.

Lorikett,
Agree with your comments.
Having roots in the land ..I can see both sides of the arguement...
We need to improve conditions in "some"..Indonesian abattoirs..
not put "knee jerk" bans on all beef sales.....
This idiotic.. another "policy on the run...get those extra votes" decision ...by this totally incompetent excuse of a government...will put the second last nail in the coffin for farms and graziers.
The last one will be the "farting CO2 cow/beef tax"..being pushed in.
Take a look at what the NZ farmers are now facing......
Taxed on number of head of cattle...and an increase every year in the tax.!
They are now fearfull for all of their primary industries....closing down or becoming unviable.
Wonder when the Gore/Green elite will start up an industry ...selling "meat pills".....for our daily protein supplement.?????
Election please......

I think we would all like to process animals humanely through Australian abattoirs, but if Indonesia will only take live animals and we don't acquiesce to their requirements, we will lose our export market. This will not only impact on Australian graziers, but push our country's massive foreign debt even further into the red.

The problem with Labor is that they have tried to throw the baby out with the bathwater, instead of taking a moderate stance to achieve change.

I think it is bad enough that the Australian meat market is being given a caning by living standards that are going down. When we can only afford the cheaper cuts of meat, our smaller meat retailers are forced into bankruptcy.

If we finish up with a glut of meat due to loss of export markets, it will reduce prices to the point where smaller graziers will go down the tube just as quickly.

A loss of export markets will never result in better living standards for any small business or consumer.

I am elated that Animals Australia exposed this slow torture, there is no way this should be going on. Anyone that wants to profit from this brutality isn't human, maybe life on the land and the cruelty involved in this money hungry industry has hardened you farmers but this is not of this century, come on!
No one will ever get into these abattoirs again and this is why this has to be stopped for good. They will say they are using stun guns and upright restrained boxes without ropes, hell maybe they will even replace the slide style ramp into these boxes, how would you like someone to batter you or drown you until the climb up a slide, then I'll cut your head off with a blunt knife and slash your tendons. This is a national disgrace, no animals should be placed on boats alive destined for slaughter to endure the barbaric indonesian slaughter man who actually seem more like animals that the cattle. At the same time I feel for the farmers losing income but this isn't an income that any decent person with values and morals would even consider earning. Stop having a go at Animals Australia, they are not all vegetarians. I am an activist against cruelty, I eat meat, worked in an abattoir and recruited for that abattoir, what I have witnessed in Indonesia and the Middle East is just diabolical and the saddest thing I have ever witnessed. I think Lyn White deserves a medal. To get that footage would have been hard; Lyn would have experienced such anger and extreme sadness at the same time. She has taken so many risks and I congratulate her from the deepest place in my heart. Shut this industry down for good.

People should start to realise that when you have a massive empty country like Australia with less people, "dissarmed at that," in its entire boarders than the millions who live in most of the cities alone just north of us, we shouldnt antagonise them or rock the boat. We treat our cattle well. Once they are sold to another country and they have taken delivery, as far as I am conserned they can do as they please.