Revelations of the brutal sledgehammer slaughter of cattle in a Vietnam abattoir are, no doubt, a terrible look for the whole industry.

And the latest incidents have again sparked a wider debate of whether or not Australia should continue to export live cattle. The good news, though, is that we do seem to have learned from previous debacles in this space.

The previous Labor Government’s knee-jerk and ill-thought-out response to Four Corners’ footage in 2011 that exposed cruelty to stock in Indonesian slaughterhouses was a case study in how not to handle these matters.

The government’s immediate ban on live cattle exports to that country did nothing to change the brutal practices and, instead, cost our country’s cattle producers millions, put jobs at risk and damaged Australia’s relationship with our nearest neighbour. 

This time, though, a new government is taking a much more considered approach to its response - and the Labor opposition seems to be in step.

This time the thinking seems to be that there is nothing to be gained by punishing local producers for behaviour over which they have no control, and that the best way to stop the brutality that clearly exists in some overseas abattoirs is to maintain a relationship with those abattoirs.

Because, when all the rhetoric is over, we simply cannot accept the cruelty we have been exposed to this week and sanctions must be taken. But those sanctions should be taken against individual abattoirs, not a whole country or the whole export industry. 

Australian primary producers are among the most professional in the world and do not deserve to be tarred by the actions of cruel overseas slaughterhouse operators. Nor should they pay the penalty for that disgusting behaviour. 

Hopefully the extra time taken to consider a response in this instance will ensure previous mistakes are not repeated.