Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

In conclusion, the Greens took a position to this election, as we have to other elections, to end the live export trade. We did so because we have known for many years what many campaigners and many members of the public have also known for many years—that is, that the live animal export trade is not a trade that we can defend ethically, it is not a sustainable trade and it is not a trade that delivers bang for the buck to the Australian economy that domestic meat processing would. Now, thanks to the fantastic, continued and tireless work of campaigners like Lyn White, the RSPCA and Animals Australia, many more people know what a number of us have known for years—that is, that the boats that take animals overseas for killing in ways that we cannot control are shiploads of cruelty.

We know that tens of thousands of these animals die in transit. We have seen a graphic reminder of what happens to over 60,000 animals when they are stuck dockside and stranded. I must say too that I spent my university years in Fremantle where one could see on a regular basis the shiploads of sheep and other animals sitting on the dockside and the stench that wafted over the whole of the town as they were stuck there—

An incident having occurred in the chamber

I did get a motion passed yesterday for a 10 per cent energy efficiency cut, but I did not realise it would be implemented quite so quickly!

Honourable members interjecting—

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