Report release resurrects 'Skippy burger' jokes

Thursday, January 3, 2013

In 1981, a sharp-eyed meat inspector in San Diego, Calif., sent a sample of imported beef that didn't look right for species testing and found it was horse meat, nearly destroying Australia's $1 billion a year meat export business. Horse and kangaroo meat were discovered elsewhere in the United States, leading to "Skippy burger" jokes around the globe. (Skippy The Bush Kangaroo was a 1960s Aussie children's television show.)

Last fall, the final papers were released from the resulting 1982 Royal Commission, bringing the issue back to life. Jack Waterford, now Canberra Times editor-at-large, had asked for "appendix h" to the Commission's report on Dec 2, 1982, the day that the Freedom of Information Act came into effect, and finally got it last October after re-submitting the request in August, 2011. According to the Times, in 1982 the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet deferred Waterford's request to allow for "all 'criminal and quasi-criminal proceedings' referred to in the document to conclude."

The Nov. 19, 2012 Canberra Times commented that "the findings of the Royal Commission led to an overhaul of the Australian meat industry . . .  While many of the companies named faced sanctions and had export certification cancelled, effectively closing down operations, some of the persons named in the appendix are still involved in the meat industry."

Concluded Waterford: "The department did not reconsider access even after it became clear that a stage of desultory and usually ineffective police investigations and prosecutions was over." BF