Moves to ban live sheep exports to the Middle East by the Australian Meat Industries Employees Union and its ramifications were hotly debated in 1981.
The AMIEU confirmed that it was seeking support from other unions to limit the trade and expand trade in carcases.
Ralph James was the president of the Sheepmeat Council of Australia at the time and said that showed a total ignorance of the major problems supplying the area, saying that regular chilled lambs exports to Saudi Arabia were very difficult because of the lack of scheduled services.
Plus, it wasn't always easy to secure certificates from the Australian Federation of of Islamic Councils to prove the sheep had been killed to specification.
On another front, federal Primary Industries Minister Peter Nixon rejected AMIEU claims that the live sheep trade was affecting the quality of Australian wool.
"I point out to the House that, despite the apparent presumption of the AMIEU, we cannot dictate to the Middle East what sort of sheep or sheepmeats it buys," he said. "It has a preference for fresh killed meat.
"We are supplying only 28 per cent of the live sheep trade to the Middle East so obviously there are other markets from which the Middle East would draw if that trade were to cease."
In a summary published towards the end of 1981, the writer announced that one of Australia's most successful ventures - the $200m annual live sheep trade - was suffering from 'rumblings of union discontent, a broadside from animal liberationists (and lately the RSPCA) and arguments over handling and shipping procedures'.
"The shipping figures however, belie current depressed feeling in the sheepmeat industry," the story read.
"The Australian Meat and Livestock Corporation reports that in the eight months to August this year, 3.8 million live sheep were exported.
"This is 100,000 head less than last year's figures for the same period, despite a softening in demand from Iran."
The article also said the world demand for mutton was not shaping up as well as could be expected and exporters were anxiously awaiting the entry of the Soviet Union into the market, which had just built up livestock populations.
- This story first appeared in the North Queensland Register's 130 year souvenir edition.
ALSO READ: