THE Commonwealth's compensation offer to producers involved in a class action involving a ban on live cattle exports has been revealed in senate estimate hearings in Canberra this week.
The government has offered $215 million, which falls way short of the $2 billion-plus sought by those whose livelihoods were devastated following the ban on live exports to Indonesia in 2011 which has now been ruled invalid by the Federal Court.
The assistant secretary of the Office of Legal Service Coordination Michael Johnson said the Commonwealth had made two offers of settlement - the first in December and the second as recently as this week. Both contained the same terms for $215m with a deadline for acceptance of July 21 this year.
Mr Johnson was responding to questions from shadow Attorney-General Western Australian senator Michaelia Cash in a Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee hearing.
Senator Cash also asked whether the matter was being instructed out of cabinet.
This has been claimed by the lawyers representing pastoralists and other cattle businesses in the class action, who have suggested it is being treated as 'a campaign' by the current Labor Government.
Mr Johnson: "All I can say is the Department of Finance has carriage of this matter and is running it. I have no knowledge about cabinet's involvement."
Andrew Gill, partner with law firm MinterEllison, told producers at a beef industry conference earlier this year the sticking point in negotiations over the compensation sum was that the Commonwealth was taking the position there was only a six-week impact of the ban on the Indonesian market - the length it ran for - but the class action argued the losses go well beyond that time frame.
It is also believed there is disagreement over the eligibility of indirect industry participants, such as truck drivers and operators of holding yards, for compensation.
The court recently extended the deadline for agreement to be reached until November, however many in the beef industry feel it's unlikely any progress will be made given the Commonwealth's stand.
A spokesperson for Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus told Farmonline in March: "The Commonwealth has engaged in a good faith attempt to settle the claims made by the class by offering to pay as much money as it thinks it can properly offer, on the information that has been provided by the class to date."
The 2011 ban was handed down by the Gillard Government's agriculture minister Joe Ludwig and repealed six weeks later after the introduction of the animal welfare program the Export Supply Chain Assurance System.
Legal proceedings were launched in 2014 and in 2020 Justice Steven Rares ruled Mr Ludwig had committed the offence of misfeasance in public office.
That paved the way for compensation to be paid and while the lead litigants, Brett Cattle Company, Waterloo Station in the Northern Territory, have received their compensation, members of the ensuring class action are still waiting.