A counter to the Commonwealth's $215 million compensation offer for producers and beef businesses in the class action on the 2011 live cattle ban is expected to be made before Christmas.
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The federal government confirmed in a senates hearing this week that no offer was currently on the table because the expiry date on its initial offer, which had already been extended once, had passed in September with no response from the claimants.
Agriculture minister Murray Watt lashed out at the lawyers representing the producers, urging them to 'get their act together'.
However, Australian Farmers' Fighting Fund chair Hugh Nivision, speaking on behalf of the class action claimants, said it was an extremely complex challenge to quantify the losses of more than 200 businesses involved in the class action, especially since some businesses had closed and others had been passed onto the next generation.
"We have to come up with a number that is defendable but is also reasonable," he said.
"What is clear is that $215m was a lowball offer. We are very confident the number will be significantly higher than that."
The blanket ban in 2011, slapped on the industry by the then Labor Gillard Government in response to animal activist footage, was ruled unlawful in 2020, paving the way for a compensation payout to the members of the class action.
It's now 12 years since the ban was made, nine years since legal action was launched and three years since the Federal Court found in favour of producers.
That drawn-out process has infuriated producers, who claim the Commonwealth has continually stalled and then offered a miserable and unrealistic settlement.
Asked about the case by Farmonline's Jamieson Murphy at the National Farmers' Federation conference today, Mr Watt, a lawyer by trade himself, said it was his preference that the case would have been resolved by now.
"But of course in any legal matter both parties need to be willing to settle," he said.
"We made a settlement offer before Christmas last year. We still haven't received a counter offer and frankly the claimants need to have a good hard talk to their lawyers about the strategy they are employing."
Mr Watt also made the point that the court decision was handed down two years before Labor took office and was not resolved by the Coalition Government.
Mr Nivison said the Commonwealth's negotiation tactics had disappointed beyond belief.
He said the judgement handed down by the Federal Court in 2020 found that at least an additional 88,000 head of cattle would have been exported but for the ban.
The Commonwealth has argued this number is a cap - and the $215m offer is based on that - but the class action contends it is a minimum and in fact several hundred thousand head would have been exported.
"The Commonwealth has chosen to forget the 'at least' part of the judgement," Mr Nivsion said.
The court has now confirmed the 88,000 is not a cap, paving the way for the class action to prove higher losses, which Mr Nivison said they intended to do via the collection of substantial evidence from each member.
He said the minister's lashing out at the lawyers was simply a smokescreen to cover poor negotiation tactics on the part of his government.