Re Live Sheep Export Saga (Star, May 29)
I am generally very careful to not condemn those who are trying to make an honest living and who believe they are doing right. We all have our morals and principles that guide our actions as we navigate through life.
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These standards are generally laid down from within the family and built upon over the course of your life, and as we all know, they can differ from your next-door neighbour. It is these morals and principles that unite us and divide us. When we are united we move forward peacefully in life towards a better objective.
However, when I stand back and look at Australia as a whole, I still fail to see our objective. Still, one thing is a certainty; we are a very rich country that still offers employment and opportunities for its occupants. I can say this because I have travelled through poor countries and developing countries, and believe me, stepping back into Australia is like stepping into utopia.
I am led to believe that my family heritage in Australia stems back to the very first shipment of prisoners to Australia. Both my mother and father came from cattle and sheep stations, which were owned by their parents, within the district of Mount Isa and Cloncurry. I hold the war medal of a family relative who was one of the first to enlist in the first regiment of the First Australian Light Horse; and who was killed in Gallipoli; he also worked on the land. As for me, I also have spent many good years on the land, working on various cattle stations throughout Australia; some of the biggest. What does this have to do with the live sheep export saga you say? Everything, if you the reader have never worked on the land.
The standard morals and principles that were instilled in me from my family and their family before, and the principles of those who I have worked with on the land, share a common denominator. That is, working livestock requires that you treat the animal with respect, inflict no harm, and do the best you can do with what you have. If you steered away from these principles, it wouldn’t take long before the manager or head stockman would pull you to side, and generally result in you rolling your swag. I have seen both rough treatment and fine treatment of stock, and I am pleased to say 99% of what I have seen has been fine treatment.
What I find displeasing is the recent remarks by Robert Katter; reported by this paper, about the live sheep export. Mr. Katter condemns the government by saying “Continuation of that impulsive response from government from an ill-informed position to legislate for the masses.” The irony here is that Mr. Katter also impulsively responds from an ill-informed position to speak on behalf of the minority, boasting that "Its not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog. Impulse is the result of a core belief (morals and principles) and generally does not change. In this instance, the impulse or core belief from our government is to stop live trading under the present conditions (it goes against the governments morals). I am without doubt that Mr. Katter means well, as most of us do strive towards what we think is best. However, in some instances there is a far greater order than business and politics, and we should be smart enough to recognise it when it comes our way.
The purpose of this letter is to inform Mr. Katter and those people who have never worked on the land of a critical attribute that is common among the minority. The minority I refer to are those people who have been and are the backbone of this country, in which our rich lives have stemmed from. It is those people who tend to livestock, the same livestock that eventually ends up on our tables. I have never met nor worked with a stockman that would approve of the current conditions of our live export trade. It goes against their morals, principles, and work ethics. We would sooner see the livestock stay here for our own consumption, and find work elsewhere, than witnessing a barbaric act of greed and immoralistic behaviour. This behaviour destroys the very essence of human intellect, and the compassion for those things that sustain life.
This behaviour is the result of the scrupulous world of business, in which large companies have acquired large parcels of land. The only concern here is profit and not morals. That is why it’s called the cut throat world of business.
So, when you hear the cries of: lost of jobs; devastating effects; it wont stop cruelty; the economy is at risk, what your hearing are the cries of those in the corporate world of business that have grown fat, and not the cries of the minority.
The extreme wealth of this country is strong enough and rich enough to put an end to live export, or to demand the conditions of exporting to be improved immediately. Otherwise, Roll your swag and move on, it’s not how we do things here. If there is one thing that our objective as a country should be, I think nothing better would be more fitting than a country that is known to have high morals and principles in all our dealings, both locally and internationally.
We are in a perfect position to do just that. Good morals last a lifetime and are trusted by all, however, wealth is here today and gone tomorrow.
In my days on the land we all so had a saying about dogs, as Mr. Katter would have it: "We don’t care how big the fight is in the dog, it’s about how well the dog works with the stock, that is what matters most. Enjoy your Sunday roast people; it’s been over two hundred years in the making brought to you by people who came in chains, who lost life, and who gave blood, sweat and tears.
We should have at least some principle left within us to respect that.
Paul Mitchell.
Mount Isa