Australia’s mad cow backlash prompts back down from allowing beef imports

Bowing to pressure from talkback radio, the opposition and its own backbench, Australia’s Federal Government has delayed for two years a policy to allow beef imports from countries that have had mad cow disease. But in the second policy reversal due to a public backlash this year, the Agriculture Minister Tony Burke on Monday asked the Director of Quarantine for an import risk analysis for beef.