http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbott-vows-not-to-shut-down-live-cattle-trade-after-sledgehammer-revelations-20150520-gh5jo0.html
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has vowed not to close down the live cattle trade to Vietnam following revelations Australian cattle are being slaughtered with sledgehammers in Vietnamese abattoirs. Animal rights group Animals Australia documented brutal practices in Vietnam late last month and lodged a complaint with the Department of Agriculture last week. Animals Australia communications director Lisa Chalk said the footage of the cattle being killed with repeated blows to the head with a sledgehammer was "so shocking and distressing" that the organisation had decided not to publicly release it at this time.
Speaking to reporters in Brisbane on Wednesday, Mr Abbott said the government would "carefully investigate" any allegations and "take appropriate action" if the allegations were proven. "But the last thing we'll do is close down this trade," he said. Mr Abbott said the Gillard government's 2011 decision to suspend the live cattle trade to Indonesia following an ABC Four Corners program which exposed cruelty in Indonesian abattoirs had been a "catastrophic" decision.
"We're certainly not going to take the former government as our role model," he said. "We're certainly not going to rush into making the sort of mistake which the former government made. "We know that on the basis of a television program, a panicked Labor government closed down the live cattle export trade. "It cost thousands of Australians their livelihoods, at least for a period. It badly damaged our relations with Indonesia, a country which is very important to us. So it was a crazy decision, probably the most short-sighted blunder in Australian foreign policy in recent memory."
Interviewed on ABC TV on Wednesday, Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said the use of sledgehammers was "barbaric."