$3m to help workers hit by live-cattle export ban

Workers who have lost their jobs or income as a result of the ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia will get help under a $3 million package from the Gillard Government.

Federal Agriculture Minster Joe Ludwig says workers will get recovery subsidy payments and extra help to find new work if needed.

The package comes as the coalition strengthens its attack on the Government over its handling of the cattle ban.

Shadow foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop questioning why Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd put trips to Equatorial Guinea and Kazakhstan ahead of going to Indonesia to help negotiate an end to the impasse.

Senator Ludwig will confirm today that payments available to workers will be backdated to the day the suspension of cattle exports came into effect.

Workers will get assistance for up to 13 weeks and a Centrelink hotline for those hurt by the ban has been set up to guide people through the red tape of applying for payments.

The $3 million package is separate from the $5 million contingency fund Senator Ludwig is attempting to force Meat and Livestock Australia to pay to its members to help tide them over during the suspension.

The ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia in the wake of a TV report into cruelty in abattoirs there has been in place for almost 20 days.

Ms Bishop said yesterday Mr Rudd should be making negotiations over the cattle ban his priority and should go to Jakarta immediately.

She claimed Mr Rudd was instead putting his energies into his bid to win Australia a seat on the United Nations Security Council in 2013.

It is a responsibility of the Foreign Minister to travel widely and pursue Australia's national interest, however, he should have made Indonesia his first port of call on his current trip; she said.

Mr Rudd is due to meet Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa at the Organisation of the Islamic Conference in Kazakhstan.