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]..only because of references to Rugby..
Trans-Tasman war looms over lamb
11th January 2008, 11:25 WST West Australian
The 2,000 kilometre stretch of water separating New Zealand and Australia is a massive gulf, according to the meat industries of both countries who have embarked on a "lamb war".
With both sides claiming they produce better lamb to chomp on, New Zealand Lamb Marketing chief executive Rod Slater on Thursday night challenged Meat and Livestock Australia to a duel.
Mr Slater dared Australia to enter its finest in the Golden Lamb Awards (known as the Glammies) in March during a debate on an Australian commercial TV news program.
Meat and Livestock Australia started the spat this week when they released their annual Australia Day lamb promotion ad and had a crack at New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark in the process.
They also refused to apologise after media personality and former Australian rules footballer Sam Kekovich said Ms Clark does a "passable impersonation" of a man.
"Look at the Olympics, Oktoberfest, the Turkish Oiled Wrestling Festival - even APEC gets a week, and that's just a bunch of blokes in funny shirts apart from Helen Clarke (sic), who does a passable impersonation of a bloke anyway," he says in the ad.
In the latest advertisement, Kekovich, a "Lambassador" for the meat industry, calls for Australia Day to become a week-long national Lamb-a-thon.
Previous lamb campaigns involving Kekovich have drawn official complaints from Buddhists, vegetarians, environmentalists and even English women who objected to being labelled "trollops".
Meat and Livestock Australia general manager of marketing David Thomason said it was all about the lamb and said Bondi was full of New Zealanders chasing better meat.
"Why do you think Robbie Deans took on the Wallaby coaching job? He knows Australia produces the best lamb," Mr Thomason said.
The comments were a response to former New Zealand prime minister and director-general of the World Trade Organisation Mike Moore saying in recent days that, within two World Cups, "most of the Australian rugby team will be Kiwis".
Mr Moore agreed with Mr Thomason that the ad was meant to be tongue-in-cheek though.
Two years ago, Australia's Advertising Standards Bureau unanimously dismissed complaints that Kekovich's address, during which he railed against, among others, "boofheads" on Cronulla's beaches and cricketers sending lurid text messages to English "trollops", and vilified people on account of their race, nationality, sex or ethnicity.