The Australian government will have to pay substantial damages to a Northern Territory cattle company after the federal court ruled that the blanket suspension of live cattle export in 2011 was invalid, “capricious and unreasonable”, and amounted to “misfeasance in public office”.
The then agriculture minister, senator Joe Ludwig, signed a six-month suspension of the live cattle trade to Indonesia on 7 June 2011, in response to an ABC Four Corners report that showed shocking footage of Australian cattle being slaughtered inhumanely in Indonesian abattoirs.
