Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Kennedy from moving the following motion—That this House:

(1) note the impact of the live animal export suspension on Northern Australia, the whole cattle industry and all those associated with it and directs the Government within two weeks to:

(a) deploy 10 Australian officials to Indonesia;

(b) direct these officials, along with Indonesia Government appointees, to immediately implement an upgrading of Indonesian abattoirs to meet humane standards currently met in Australia; and

(c) instruct Indonesian meatworkers on how to process to humane standards currently met in Australia;

(2) directs the Government to ship to Indonesia 60 stun guns with knocking boxes and video cameras within seven days, and to provide appropriate training;

(3) directs the Government as a matter of urgency to:

(a) immediately accredit Indonesia abattoirs that already meet Australian standards;

(b) begin accrediting Indonesian abattoirs that have been newly upgraded to meet humane standards currently met in Australia;

(c) implement supply chain traceability and auditing systems; and

(d) implement independent monitoring of conditions in Indonesian abattoirs;

(4) once the conditions in clause 3 are satisfied, calls on the Government to immediately ensure the resumption of trade with accredited Indonesian abattoirs that meet humane standards currently met in Australia; and

(5) directs the Federal Government to immediately commence an inquiry into the circumstances leading up to the Minister for Agriculture’s decision to suspend the live cattle export trade to Indonesia and that this inquiry include Meat and Livestock Australia and all other related instrumentalities and departmental division.

The government keeps assuring me that it is addressing this problem and acting to overcome it and ensure that we get a positive outcome. The government is saying, 'Trust me.' It appears that people have been told that now for nine years. I am sorry, we are not prepared to trust anyone. If you really want us to trust you, then you should be voting for this motion. Is there a single person in this parliament that believes that 60 stun-guns should not be on their way to Indonesia now? They should have been sent a week ago. On this side of the House, everyone would agree with that. Why won't the government support the motion? If you have got something to fear, then the people of Australia have something to fear. But, if you do not have anything to fear, then why not do this? It is very simple.

I must stress the urgency of the motion because, from Thursday of last week when we lost this motion until now, thousands of cattle have been cruelly killed. It is not the fault of the people that voted for this—the people on this side of the House. This side of the House, and I refer to the opposition, have got plenty to answer for. They knew about this for six years and did nothing about it. But give them their due: they are doing something about it now. We applaud them for doing that. I cannot see any reason why the government would not agree to this. They are being told stories by the MLA, but the real story here is that the MLA and the departmental officials that are responsible for this are doing a big con act. 'Oh, this is very complicated,' they say. It ain't complicated—you send the cattle up there to Jakarta, you put them in the back of a hired utility and you say, 'Hey fellas, we've got some ratbags back in Australia we've got to make happy; would you please do it this way?' You have to put it that way. Since it is a hell of a lot easier to do it with a stun-gun than the way they are doing it at present, I am sure they would be more than happy to agree. But do not let anyone stand up and have the hypocrisy to say that they are against cruelty when they are defending the continuation of the killing of cattle in this inhumane manner.

That is the situation. If you are seriously worried about animal welfare, then stop it—this motion stops it. It forces the government to do something, instead of listening to the people who are responsible for this situation and are now advising the government that they have it all under control. The government is accepting that. The government has got to realise that, while it might be accepting it, the voting public are not accepting it. The voting public are listening to the things that I am saying in here because they know that they are true. They know that nothing has been done by this government to ensure that a single ox is killed humanely in Indonesia—nothing. The same people are giving out the same stories that they have given out for nine years. If the stun-guns do not get up there in the next two or three weeks, then if I was a betting man I would bet that Indonesia will bring in cattle from Brazil. The minute they start to do that we will be finished—we will never get back in there again.

Someone mentioned foot-and-mouth disease. Indonesia is provisionally a free country and most of Brazil is provisionally free, so they do not run into that problem. There are those of us who argue that there are parts of Indonesia—with its 1,000 islands—that are not provisionally free, but we will not go into that today. My colleague the honourable member for Denison does not have the same view as I do about the foreseeable future, but he absolutely believes that cattle should not be cruelly killed and every day that goes by more and more of them will be killed.

The government is saying, 'Trust me.' It is listening to people working for the MLA and people working for the government that are saying, 'We have got it under control; we are addressing it.' That is the story we have been told for the last nine years. The honourable member for Denison and I thank very much the opposition, and particularly the Leader of the Opposition, for taking a strong stand on this in spite of the fact that there is a downside for them insofar as criticism for the past will be sheeted home to them. But forget about the past. Let us look to the future; let us do something about it.

We cannot get any information, so we do not know how many cattle are in the pipeline. I am told it is in the tens of thousands. Someone told me 30,000; another person told me it might be nearer 100,000. One of the mayors in my own area said that a number of cattlemen are now on suicide-watch. This place just does not seem to care how many farmers commit suicide in this country. I have said again and again no-one cares about a farmer committing suicide every four days in this country. Not one single thing that I can think of has been done to allay that figure, except sending counsellors out. My experience with counsellors—God bless them; I love them—is that I really appreciate the work that they are doing but they are almost irrelevant to the problem. That has been my experience with counselling, and I do not mean to speak badly about counsellors. But I am told by one of my mayors, who is down here for the conference today and who came to see me, that the police have rung up to officially inform him that we have a number of graziers on suicide watch at this moment.

So the government says, 'Trust me.' That is what is being said here: 'Trust me.' That is the answer to the problem! Has one single stun-gun, video camera or knocking box left Australia? No. We know that for an absolute fact and we are into the first fortnight. If they say they care about the ox, I am sorry but you have lost that argument. We already know you do not care because you have not sent a single stun-gun up there. If you cared, you would have been sending stun-guns up there the next day. But you do not care, as evidenced here again today. So we are giving very specific directions. From the point of view of the member for Denison, this will hold the line until he goes to what he believes is the right thing to do, which is cutting off the export trade. I would disagree with that, of course— (Time expired)

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