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Speaker 1: Now we know in news that's just sort of come through.

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Speaker 1: In the last twenty four hours to forty eight hours,

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Speaker 1: Malaysia's paused the import of all live cattle and buffalo

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Speaker 1: from Australia, following Indonesia's decision to halt those imports from

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Speaker 1: four Australian facilities over concerns about lumpy skin disease. Last month,

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Speaker 1: Australia's Chief Vet Mark Shipp said that LSD has never

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Speaker 1: been detected in Australia and the country remains free of

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Speaker 1: the livestock disease. Now joining me on the show to

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Speaker 1: talk more about the situation is Will Evans, the chief

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Speaker 1: executive of the Cattleman's Association here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Will, Good morning Katie. Thanks for having me on.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for joining us. Now tell me why has

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Speaker 1: Malaysia now suspended all live cattle and buffalo exports from Australia.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think the biggest thing and the most important

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Speaker 2: point to make first up is Australia remains free from LSD.

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Speaker 2: What's happened in the last week is Malaysia, who shares

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Speaker 2: a border with Indonesia, has asked for us to reassure

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Speaker 2: them that that status remains in place, very similar to

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Speaker 2: what the Indonesians have asked for as well, and we're

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Speaker 2: working through a process of making sure that they're satisfied

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Speaker 2: our procedures and our protocols remain intacted, that we've remade

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Speaker 2: free of LST.

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Speaker 1: It seems pretty frustrating, you know, when you think, if

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Speaker 1: we remain free of LSD, why are we in a

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Speaker 1: situation where these countries and making this decision.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think this is a legitimate inquiry. So Indonesia

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Speaker 2: has done some testing in Australian cattle. Under that testing,

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Speaker 2: they've said, look, this could be an issue, and this

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Speaker 2: could be something that we need to discuss. They've asked

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Speaker 2: us the question, and what's really important as an exporting

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Speaker 2: country predominantly an exporting state or territory, is that we

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Speaker 2: answer that question and we answer it as transparently as possible.

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Speaker 1: Is there anything more at this point that the federal

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Speaker 1: government could be doing to support the industry.

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Speaker 2: I think at this stage this is about really satisfying

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Speaker 2: the trade inquiry. It's really about saying, what are all

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Speaker 2: the things that we need to get to satisfy these

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Speaker 2: guys that our status is correct, and then working through

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Speaker 2: a process of collecting that data. A lot of work

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Speaker 2: happening behind the scenes at this stage. We're supportive of

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Speaker 2: the direction of the federal government's going in, and we're

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Speaker 2: certainly supportive of the work of the Northern Territory government.

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Speaker 2: There's a few people who behind the scenes are doing

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Speaker 2: an absolute power of work with the anti government, and

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Speaker 2: you know, a lot of that they often take it

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Speaker 2: a lot of recognition, but we're very grateful to have

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Speaker 2: some people with some really substantial skills in the territory

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Speaker 2: helping us through this.

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Speaker 1: Well, do we have any idea how long the inquiry

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Speaker 1: is going to take and how long this holt is

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Speaker 1: going to sort of be in place?

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Speaker 2: No, we don't. This is diplomatic ord Sorry I should

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Speaker 2: says diplomatic. It's something that's handard at a country to

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Speaker 2: country level. Obviously there's processes and procedures that they need

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Speaker 2: to go through. I meantor industry. We'd like this to

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Speaker 2: be resolved tomorrow. We see a problem, we like seeing

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Speaker 2: a problem. Unfortunately, government's work in different ways and so

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Speaker 2: we've got to be patient and really just try to

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Speaker 2: support them with everything that they need to make sure

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Speaker 2: that we can do this as quickly as possible.

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Speaker 1: Now tell me, are there any exports due to leave

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Speaker 1: for Malaysia at the moment during coming days?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it will be some of the year. So where

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Speaker 2: we're at in terms of the pastoral industries a year

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Speaker 2: we finished the first round muster, so this is normally

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Speaker 2: the time of year where we would start to export

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Speaker 2: some of those cattle that fit Malaysian specifications to Malaysia.

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Speaker 2: It is a valuable market for us. We don't have

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Speaker 2: a lot of options in terms of for the type

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Speaker 2: of cattle that Malaysia like. They're very much cattle that

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Speaker 2: we like supplying them. But as just before we get

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Speaker 2: into that sort of peak season, Malaya's obviously asked us

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Speaker 2: a question and we've got to work through answering.

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Speaker 1: It for So, what impact does that then have all

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Speaker 1: those cattle supplies. You know, if it is a market,

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Speaker 1: you know that we've got a certain type of cattle

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Speaker 1: that is being exported over there, what impact is it

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Speaker 1: going to have for them?

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Speaker 2: Well, look, we've got these cattle impactics all across Northern

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Speaker 2: Australia at the moment, so it's not just a Northern

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Speaker 2: territory concern. It's something that is a much bigger concern

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Speaker 2: than that. But happily, for the first time in a

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Speaker 2: long time, we've got a lot of grass impactics, we've

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Speaker 2: got a lot of water on the ground. We can

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Speaker 2: hold this cattle for a bit longer. We need to

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Speaker 2: see a rest of to this, obviously, as soon as possible,

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Speaker 2: But the cattle are out of any danger at the

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Speaker 2: moment and the industry is able to accommodate them. So yeah,

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Speaker 2: certainly uneasy at the minute. Yeah, nerve wracking wanting to

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Speaker 2: get to see a resolution to it, but no one's

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Speaker 2: in too much danger at the minute.

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Speaker 1: Which is good for our cattle exporters. Is the Malaysian

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Speaker 1: market all all the Indonesian market bigger ones for US.

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Speaker 2: So Indonesia by far is the biggest market, and we're

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Speaker 2: talking by an order a significant order magnitude. Malaysia is

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Speaker 2: a very important market to us because their specification is

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Speaker 2: different to the Indonesian specification. So we very much like

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Speaker 2: to climb both those markets and we need them open

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Speaker 2: as soon as possible.

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Speaker 1: Now, this might be a bit of a blunt or

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Speaker 1: simplistic question, but why is the Indonesian and Malaysian government

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Speaker 1: worried about Australian cattle when we don't have lumpy skin,

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Speaker 1: but over in Indonesia at least they have.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I think the way I've been answering

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Speaker 2: this question, Katie, when people have asked me it is,

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Speaker 2: you know, if By manufactured cars and one of my

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Speaker 2: customers contacted me and said, look, I've got rusty break pads.

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Speaker 2: It's not steering straight. I've got an issue with this.

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Speaker 2: This is a product that I purchased from me, that's

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Speaker 2: a premium product. The first thing that you would do

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Speaker 2: as a car manufacturers, you'd go through your facilities and

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Speaker 2: make sure you hadn't made the mistakes along the way.

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Speaker 2: So what we're doing is we're looking going through our facilities,

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Speaker 2: and we're going through our supply chain, making sure there's

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Speaker 2: no issues there, and then sharing that information transparently with

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Speaker 2: our trading partners, just as any other commodity would. And

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Speaker 2: we're just trying to do it as fast as we can.

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Speaker 1: Well. Will Evans, the chief executive of the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: Cattleman's Association, good to speak to you this morning. Keep

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Speaker 1: us up to date, let us know how things go

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Speaker 1: and hopefully this all gets sorted sooner rather than later.

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Speaker 2: No, thank you, kat I really appreciate the opportunity.

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Speaker 1: Thank you