With the possible exception of the West Australian newspaper which wanted a scalp early in the piece, the media took to their stalls over the outbreak of equine influenza. Perhaps it is not too late to hold someone accountable, albeit in the context of an election campaign.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald Minister fobbed off flu alert (SMH 3 November 2007)
BARELY two years before equine influenza paralysed the horse industry and hobbled this year's Melbourne Cup, the Federal Government gave a written assurance that quarantine protocols were so stringent an outbreak of the disease "could not occur".
Warren Truss was the "responsible" minister then. Ian Callinan's inconveniently timed inquiry resumes this week. Current minister Peter McGauran will no doubt cry, "nobody told us anything". Like Howard and Downer they were too busy not listening about the AWB bribes to Saddam Hussein.
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2 comments:
Truss and McGauran have left their fingerprints all over this one. Truss wouldn’t know the time of day and McGauran was more entertaining when he was dabbling in creative bookkeeping which led to a T/A windfall. Both deserve to be sacked for gross incompetence. Maybe any legal action by the racing industry will lead to their downfall. Things weren’t much better under the ALP. It viewed AQIS as a facilitator of trade and nothing more. The ALP has no respect for our quarantine standards because Mick Young tried to smuggle a teddy bear through customs.
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