The Gillard Government did the right thing today in suspending live cattle exports to Indonesia. The reaction from the beef industry is over the top, particularly given the Government and the PM personally have stressed this is a temporary ban – i.e. it may only last a few months. In the meantime, meat-eating Australian consumers may benefit from cheaper beef due to an increase in supply to the domestic market, as reported by AAP (Ban will hurt beef industry: grazier):

Central Queensland grazier Melinee Leather says northern producers will be forced to compete with their southern counterparts.

She said they’ll have to fork up to $200 per head of cattle in transporting their stock to southern feedlots for the domestic and other international markets already covered by other producers.

“The markets will be flooded because we have a percentage of northern cattle that used to go live and now have to go somewhere else,” Ms Leather told AAP.