It's been almost a year since ABC broadcast a horrific story on cruelty to imported cattle in Indonesian slaughter houses. But cattle exports from Australia have resumed, and many animal rights advocates say new laws on how the exported animals can be treated are at best "token." Australian cows, slaughtered in Indonesia, do not even have to be stunned first as the new laws only recommend stunning. 

Animal rights activists have, in particular, questioned why Australia does not demand that exported cattle be treated with the same humanity that is required of Australia's home meat industry. Join Australia's Greens, veterinarians, and animal activists in demanding better laws governing live exports!

Julian Rocks, near Byron Bay in Australia, forms a home for a great variety of marine wildlife, being full of brightly colored tropical fish, relatively peaceful sharks, huge rays, turtles and cuttlefish. Many of these animals are under threat and some are found nowhere else. As vital natural habitat, some of the area has been protected for thirty years.

However, the Julian Rocks marine reserve doesn’t extend very far. The larger reef inhabitants, particularly sharks, have a much wider range, and reports of individuals badly injured by fishing equipment or boats nearby come in regularly. A grey nurse shark, one of the site's iconic species, made the news when the animal was filmed entangled in a rope and with a badly broken jaw.

Ask the minister for the environment to extend the sanctuary zone around Julian Rocks to include the main aggregation zones for the grey nurse shark, nearly half of which are not currently protected.