John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food Security) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the live export industry through the motion before the House. I have been a beef producer who has bred, raised and cared for cattle most of my working life. I believe I know that beef producers, perhaps even more than the rest of the Australian public, were horrified by the cruelty showed recently on television. I fully supported the government's initial action in banning the supply of animals to those abattoirs such as the ones that were shown on TV processing cattle inhumanely, and to implement an urgent review of the abattoirs system in Indonesia. However, the subsequent caving in to a very vocal group—admittedly a minority of voters—advocating a full suspension of live-shipping trade to Indonesia has been a massive overreaction from a government that has lost all credibility with the general public in dealing with difficult issues, who acts first and thinks later.

I understand the outcry from people who were shocked at the senseless cruelty that they witnessed, as we all were. However, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of families doing the right thing, that are being penalised. It is not just beef producers. This will be felt all across Northern Australia, through real estate, finance, insurance, transport, the trucking and helicopter industries and fuel industries, export yards, shipping and stevedores, veterinarians, animal health, Indigenous employment and training, stock agencies, hay producers, feed producers, processors and nutrition supplement manufacturers, rural contractors, local town suppliers, government department jobs—right across Northern Australia, the whole social fabric.

And it is not just the beef producers in Northern Australia. This has impacted on the beef producers across the country with prices dropping around 25c. For the uninitiated, for a well-conditioned cow, that is $150 a cow. That is a lot of money. Do not get your hopes up that this will reduce the retail price of meat, because even if we could trust the processors and supermarkets to pass on the $150 to $200 per beast to the consumer, the meat supplied impact is mostly on grinding meat for the US market, the hamburger market, so it will have little impact on our retail price for meat in supermarkets and butchers.

We have made our position on live exports clear. We support the suspension of the trade of cattle to abattoirs that are not processing cattle humanely. But we should not be penalising those who are doing the right thing. Being a player in the market and only supplying those that are doing the right thing is the best tool available for animal welfare reform in developing countries. There are a number of abattoirs in Indonesia that have state-of-the-art processing facilities with stunning facilities, and if we have the infrastructure already in Australia to track these cattle with the National Livestock Identification System, the only true cattle tracking system in the world. Every animal that gets on a boat has a tracking device and these cattle have to be checked off as arriving at compliant abattoirs. We use plenty of handheld devices for reading the tags at saleyards in Australia, which can immediately deploy to accredited abattoirs.

The fact is that industry has combined to provide the way forward, the mechanisms to ensure that Australian cattle are now always slaughtered humanely in Indonesian abattoirs. It just remains for the Gillard government and Minister Ludwig to fix the politics and to talk to Indonesia and to fix relations both in industry and in government there.

I am concerned for those Australians that oppose this industry that they are being led by misinformation from agenda-driven groups who do not even want us to eat meat at all. Have Australians become so disconnected from the social, economic and agricultural basis on which this country was built and from the farmers who built it? Farmers are the most determined to stop cruelty, but it seems that most Australians have no idea anymore how food is actually produced. Do people truly think that like an episode of The Goodies a happy cow goes in one end of a machine and sausages magically come out the other? Primitive man hunted animals and so do we, and for the same reasons, and we do it far less cruelly and wastefully than primitive man did it. Yet those who believe we should not now touch them have no problem with that.

A national school survey by the Kondinin group found that 88 per cent of children had never visited a farm and 73 per cent did not know a farmer. Let us take a quick history lesson. The Northern Territory industry really struggled in Australia until the introduction of the Zebu or Bos indicus cattle—most of you would know them as Brahman—in the 1930s. Since the 1970s these cattle have revolutionised the industry and taken it from near bankruptcy to an efficient and profitable enterprise that contributes hundreds of millions of dollars annually towards the economy, supports the whole social fabric of Northern Australia and brings in export dollars, apart from anything else. These cattle are drought resistant, great foragers and descendants of four breeds of Indian cattle. They are bred to not only survive but thrive in the tropical climate. However, the main reason for the breed's success is their resistance to cattle tick, which certainly broke early pioneers with European cattle. Traditional European breeds could not overcome the ticks and were in poor condition and susceptible to diseases carried by the ticks.

So from the onset of live exports Northern Australia has flourished. This major economic industry that has been developed has been very important to the local economy, especially for Aboriginal or Indigenous employment. It has been reported that there are some 80 large Indigenous cattle stations, employing around 700 Aboriginal stockmen, plus many other non-Aboriginal run stations. Those 80 Aboriginal stations turn off around 200,000 cattle a year.

The Indonesian market alone takes over half a million cattle, mostly from Northern Australia, worth over $340 million directly and contributes about $1 billion to the overall economic activity. The meat from these animals is different from traditional European breeds. If it comes down south, as I said earlier, it is not going to end up on our plates, because we consume a different type of animal down here. It is going to have an awful effect upon the whole beef industry in Australia. The double standards that abound are rather outrageous. We continue to have stricter standards imposed on our farmers with regard to OH&S, chemical use and care for animals by a conscientious Australian public; however, when they go to the supermarket they seem quite happy to buy the cheap imports that have not been required to abide by the same standards.

Many people believe the answer is simple: just set up an export abattoir in Northern Australia. Many have tried. Failed abattoirs in Broome and Innisfail are a testament to that. It is not as simple as saying: 'Let us put abattoirs in Northern Australia. We can send everything off in boxes chilled.' It is not like that. There is a very small window of opportunity to operate in Northern Australia. You need skilled people who are not going to put their hand up for four or five months work a year and come back in eight months time when they can work in mines for far more. It does not work like that. On the other side of the equation boxed meat will not replace live exports to Indonesia any time in the near future. Many of the places that have been provided with our cattle are rural and regional villages that have little access to electricity let alone refrigeration.

This motion provides a simple way forward that can get the trade restarted immediately. I urge the government to adopt this rational and sensible approach. All of us, particularly those who breed cattle, only want humane slaughter of cattle. It can be done. This is Australia. These are traditional Australians doing this, traditional Australians in every sense of the word. They have shown they will overcome anything and do anything that needs to be fixed. Gillard and the Labor government must proceed to get this going as soon as possible.

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