Senator Williams said The Nationals and their Liberal colleagues had galvanised the nation’s beef producers and ordinary Australians to fight a decision that was seemingly made with very little thought.

The Coalition has been preparing to introduce a Private Members Bill this week calling for the import risk analysis, equivalence in trace back mechanisms and country of origin labelling, and Senator Williams said Minister Burke is finally taking notice.

“Some industry bodies like the Cattle Council have had the ear of the Minister, but he should have been listening with the other ear to the wave of opposition throughout Australia.

When people contacted my office with their concerns, I told them to write to Ministers Burke, Roxon and Crean because they made the decision to allow these imports, and now they are taking the brunt of criticism.

Minister Burke could have saved himself from this embarrassing back down by listening to the people. He has not fixed this problem yet”, Senator Williams said.