Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator Ludwig. I refer the minister to the government's knee-jerk ban on the export of live cattle to Indonesia last year, made without any formal submission going to cabinet. Is the taxpayers' contingent liability for compensation to the live cattle industry still unquantifiable? If it is not unquantifiable, what is the government's estimate of the actual liability? Does the minister deny this liability will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars? What other unquantifiable liabilities are on the budgetary horizon?