In a statement to the media intended to bring closure to the messy affair, Meat and Livestock Australia has today advised that the two staff involved in the poll hack have been formally disciplined, while their area manager has resigned.

The NLIS manager in question is Christian Mulders.

"MLA holds a position of trust within the meat and livestock industry," the statement says.

"Because of this it takes seriously any action by staff that undermines this trust.

"The company places enormous value on the hard-earned integrity for the programs it delivers.

"MLA and its staff will continue to work tirelessly to retain this integrity."

The incident in question occurred last month when FarmOnline ran a poll asking readers their views on the performance of NLIS.

A sudden transformation in the results from a majority voting 'poor' or 'terrible' to a majority voting 'good' or 'excellent' raised claims the poll had been hacked into by people voting more than once.

A Rural Press investigation traced the poll hack to two internet provider addresses owned by MLA.

MLA consequently hired the fraud unit from audit firm Ernst & Young to investigate the issue, identifying two hackers had written a program to vote on multiple occasions.

MLA says the investigation also identified "a number of further breaches of MLA's code of conduct".

The findings of that report were delivered to MLA late last week, with the MLA board then deciding their course of action earlier this week.

SOURCE: Rural Press National News Bureau, Agricultural Publishing, Canberra.