Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion moved by my friend the member for Kennedy. There is clearly an urgent need for this parliament to become engaged in the whole issue of live animal exports as a result of the crisis that has engulfed this country and this trade in the 2½ weeks since the remarkable Four Corners program that most of us have seen, with images that I do not think any of us could possibly forget. I am tabling a bill next week and I will be able to talk in much more detail then about this issue. It is a bill that seeks to end the live animal export trade by mid-2014.

On this issue the member for Kennedy and I disagree, but we do agree very strongly, and we care just as much, about all of the people who have been affected by the moratorium that is now in place. We care just as much as each other about the tens of thousands of beasts that are now in feedlots in Indonesia, that are not going to be covered by any new initiative or controls put in place by the Australian government or the tens of thousands of beasts that continue to be slaughtered—and hundreds if not thousands will be slaughtered tonight in exactly the same circumstances and conditions that we saw on the Four Corners show 2½ weeks ago. That is unacceptable. My friend the member for Kennedy and I agree equally about the welfare of the graziers, the truckers, the shipping lines, the feed producers and everyone else who has been seriously impacted by the moratorium that has been put in place.

This motion seeks to energise the Australian government's response to this crisis in our live animal export trade. It seeks to energise the government to act as quickly as it humanly can to put in place appropriate safeguards in Indonesia so that the trade can be resumed. Yes, I do see an end to this in a few years time, for a range of very important reasons—not just ethical but also for important economic reasons. The fact is that the live animal export trade is cannibalising Australia's processing trade. No less than the Meat Industry Council of Australia reports the thousands of jobs that have been lost and the abattoirs that have been closed.

I ask my colleagues in this place, even if you disagree with me strongly on the need to ultimately wind up the live animal export trade, to please see the sense of processing these beasts in Australia, reopening the abattoirs, establishing new abattoirs and employing Australians. It is in Australia's long-term economic interests that these beasts be processed onshore. If you do not see the ethical argument, at least see the economic argument.

The motion in front of us seeks to energise the government's response to the crisis. It seeks to put in place appropriate safeguards such as Australian inspectors on the ground in Indonesia to help with training, monitoring, to enhance animal tracking and to show how to use the stunning guns—in fact, to hand over the stunning guns. This motion importantly seeks to call to account Meat and Livestock Australia, which has betrayed all of us. It has betrayed no-one more than the industry itself and the graziers who will be raising these beasts. The graziers have been handing over $5 per head in the expectation that the MLA would spend a reasonable amount of that money to make sure that Australian conditions and safeguards were put in place. What has the MLA done in response? It has gorged on a marketing budget, it has gorged on travel around the region and it has let all of us down significantly.

There is now an urgent need for the MLA to be held to account, and this motion seeks to do that. There is an urgent need for the Australian government to become energised on this issue. There is an urgent need for the motion of my friend the member for Kennedy to be debated and voted on because who can forget those scenes on the Four Corners program only 2½ weeks ago?

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