Mr Cobb said while he supported the idea of improving the SCA for live exports, it was ridiculous to be comparing the Middle East to Indonesia.

"We were the only people involved, they (Indonesia) don't import cattle from anywhere else so it was tailor-made for that situation and all parties were trying to look for a solution," Mr Cobb said.

"So to try and set the same rules in the Middle East is just ludicrous."

Mr Cobb said he wrote to Federal Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig six weeks ago telling him to get involved in the issue because Australia couldn't afford another Indonesian mess.

"In some ways it will be worse than Indonesia," he said.

"We are talking about all these different importers and without government support the implementation just cannot happen.

"The Government needs to support these changes with broad effective government-to-government engagement to ensure success."

Mr Ludwig is heading a delegation to the Middle East on January 27, but Mr Cobb said it was far too late.

"I don't understand why he was not over there sooner," he said.

"We are now only a month from D-day.

"He should have involved himself in the system two months ago not now."

Mr Cobb said the feedback he had received from industry was that the government-to-government dialogue had not been sufficient enough to achieve the changes in the timeframes outlined.

"I am concerned there may be another major shock to the industry if the government doesn't step up to the challenge," he said.

"It is not good enough for government to put a set of rules in place and then just sit back and expect industry to deal with it."

Mr Cobb said the Australian Government needed to be more flexible with its implementation times and expectations.

"We are asking for things which we don't even ask of ourselves," he said.

"Here we are trying to do one system for a dozen different countries, we need to be flexible.

"I'm sure Mr Ludwig has the best intentions but he just isn't handling it very well."