Letter of the Week
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AS yet another live export scandal breaks, with footage showing the agonising death of 2,400 sheep on a live export ship headed to Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE, industry spokesmen and their government apologists rush out the usual trite phrases about “one-off” events and warning against “knee-jerk” reactions.
Maybe it’s time for a knee-jerk reaction. This is the term used by doctors for a test of reflexes that indicate the health or otherwise of the human nervous system. The live export trade is a profound sickness in our society, and ignoring it and hoping yet another incident of hideous cruelty will soon be forgotten just makes the patient, our community, that much sicker.
These thousands of sheep, many already used, abused and unwanted by the wool industry, died from extreme heat, many being unable to reach food and water and suffering behind the bodies of their neighbours, who were left to rot on deck.
The argument that this is acceptable because farmers make money from it does not hold water: people make money from cigarettes and illicit drugs too, but we try to stamp out those evils.
Not only is live export appallingly awful for the victims, it is environmentally devastating. I authored a study a few years ago which estimated the total CO2 emissions of Australian live exports at approximately 1.8 million tonnes, which puts the live-export industry among the top 40 CO2 emitters in Australia.
It’s well over time for a kneejerk reflex that will restore both our moral and environmental health by banning this obscene industry.
DESMOND BELLAMY, SPECIAL PROJECTS COORDINATOR, PETA AUSTRALIA, BYRON BAY Thousands of sheep died of heat stress last year on a live export ship to Saudi Arabia. What terrible suffering those poor animals endured before they finally died. When is this disgusting trade going to end?
Surely it’s time to create more jobs here by opening abattoirs and killing these poor animals humanely. Then export the meat frozen as most countries do.
Unfortunately, they will simply have an investigation, deliver a report and nothing will happen! Big business and greed rule our country and our animals count for nothing! Where is their moral decency?
Please sign the Animals Australia petition on their website. JENNIFER HORSBURGH, ELANORA
BUSINESS owners on the Gold Coast should have been realistic and should have expected low visitor patronage during the Commonwealth Games.
Consider the experience of a Games visitor coming from Brisbane. Leaving from Bowen Hills, catching the train and shuttle bus to Carrara Athletic Stadium would take 2 hours, and the same amount of time going back. Add an extra 30 to 90 minutes waiting for a shuttle bus. They then spend 3-8 hours watching and enjoying the Games.
Do the shops and restaurants in Surfers, Broadbeach and other attractions honestly believe that the visitors would be in the mood to walk around shops and sit in a restaurant go down a slippery side or sit on a merry go round! They came to enjoy the Games. They can come back to the Gold Coast to enjoy and relax when it is suitable for them. ANGELO, BIGGERA WATERS
FOR Beattie and anyone else to say that the out of town bus driver who took the volleyball players 100kms in the opposite direction was in the predicament due to him not having a ‘GOLDOC-sanctioned GPS’ are kidding themselves.
Any GPS will give you the same information, regardless of who you use it for, as long as the information which is input is correct.
Using the “not a sanctioned through GOLDOC GPS” line is simply a crock and it would seem to me that the volleyball incident is just another of the blunders which will continue to embarrass us all – thanks to Beattie and Co. GAEL, MAUDSLAND
The Seven Network is not doing a bad job commentating on Games events but why do many of its presenters engage in so much exaggerated hyperbole?
Basil Zempilas (swimming) promotes every swimmer to world status if they simply jump into the pool. Everything for Bruce McAvaney is oh so “fascinating” and again of world class. Thank goodness Jason Richardson (racing and tennis) hasn’t been involved as there’d be a contest as to who says “fascinating” the most.
And there is so much repetition! Every announcer on Sunday must have mentioned several times that Yohan Blake is the second fastest track sprinter of all time.
I’m sure it plays on Yohan’s mind too. Not!
KEN JOHNSTON, ROCHEDALE SOUTH
PRIME Minister, the benchmark you set to indicate the incumbent prime minister was a failure was 30 bad polls. You have now reached that mark.
What is your intention? Do you, driven by your massive ego, surrounded by sycophants, intend to blunder along, continuing to destroy what was once a strong and vibrant party? Or will you now step aside and allow a more politically astute politician to endeavor to repair the damage you have caused?
Tthe legacy you will leave is that you were more politically inept than either Gillard or Rudd. THOMAS DAVIES, SURFERS PARADISE