THE Federal Court has ruled in favour of cattlemen requiring the disclosure of all documents part of the $600-million class action emanating out of he 2011 live export ban.

Emails from Gillard Government advisers instructed to use the private accounts of the Minister at the centre of class action have not been produced by the Commonwealth, undermining the litigants case, the application to the Federal Court alleges.

In a “Document Discovery Application” in the Brett Cattle Company v Senator the Honourable Joe Ludwig in Sydney today, lawyers for the cattlemen, Minter Ellison, said the application had been forced on them in order to prove Mr Ludwig acted unlawfully in enacting the ban.

Mr Ludwig suspended the export of livestock on the back of a Four Corners story about the killing process of cattle.

In response to the win, NT Cattlemen’s Association chief executive officer Tracey Hayes said the application had to be made despite the “Commonwealth promising to behave like a model litigant”.

“It is astounding that we have had to fight so hard to get this material, for Joe Ludwig to have to be ordered to provide it,” she said. “These documents will assist the NTCA, who is strongly supported by the Australian Farmers’ Fighting Fund, to run the case listed for July this year.

“We look forward to Joe Ludwig attending the trial in July to answer the issues before him. He owes that to all of those affected. Although the industry is doing well you can’t shut up shop for 2 years and not still be hurting financially today. Some farmers had to sell their properties as a result of this ban — a ban seemingly timed to create the most financial damage to our industry.

“We still hold some hope that the Commonwealth will sit down and discuss this claim with us.”

Industry believes crucial documents emanating from Mr Ludwig’s office have not been ‘discovered’ (produced by the Commonwealth). The application identified Mr Ludwig used private email accounts to communicate with his staff, including the accounts ‘agfishforest@gmail.com and jludwig@bigpond.net.au.

It alleges no emails, texts or other electronic communications have been discovered by Mr Ludwig had been sourced.

There are few discovered emails between the Minister and his key Ministerial staff including Minister Ludwig’s Chief of Staff.

Communications from the then Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, or any of Mr Ludwig’s cabinet colleagues have not been searched for, they say in breach of his discovery obligations. Some documents may never recovered because “the Department’s servers that held the accounts were “decommissioned” and loaded onto backup tapes late in 2015.

The application said the Commonwealth said there ‘is no guarantee that the tapes can be recovered successfully.

“It appears that Ministerial staff were instructed to send materials to these private email addresses. Materials we have seen include a government brief and media talking points — we cannot know what else may have been sent to this account or how common this practise is or was

media_camera NT Cattlemen’s Association chief executive Tracey Hayes is happy the Federal Court has ordered former agriculture minister Joe Ludwig to produce all documents relating to the 2011 live cattle export ban.

Industry believes crucial documents emanating from Mr Ludwig’s office have not been ‘discovered’ (produced by the Commonwealth). The application identified Mr Ludwig used private email accounts to communicate with his staff, including the accounts ‘agfishforest@gmail.com and jludwig@bigpond.net.au.

It alleges no emails, texts or other electronic communications have been discovered by Mr Ludwig had been sourced.

There are few discovered emails between the Minister and his key Ministerial staff including Minister Ludwig’s Chief of Staff.

Communications from the then Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, or any of Mr Ludwig’s cabinet colleagues have not been searched for, they say in breach of his discovery obligations. Some documents may never recovered because “the Department’s servers that held the accounts were “decommissioned” and loaded onto backup tapes late in 2015.

The application said the Commonwealth said there ‘is no guarantee that the tapes can be recovered successfully.

“It appears that Ministerial staff were instructed to send materials to these private email addresses. Materials we have seen include a government brief and media talking points — we cannot know what else may have been sent to this account or how common this practise is or was.”