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

One of the things that became very clear to me and many others as we could see the truckloads of animals being taken down to be loaded on the docks was that these animals were not in for a humane end to their lives. ne of the things we can also be in no doubt about, either as a parliament or as an Australian people, is that we cannot control how animals are killed in other countries. The basic standard that applies here in Australia of stunning animals before they are killed may not be applied universally, much to the chagrin of many, but it is the basic standard. It is to the government's shame that not even the basic standard of stunning an animal before it was killed was insisted upon when resuming the live export trade.

If we do not stun animals before we kill them, we know that they can be alive for many minutes before they finally die. It is fanciful to believe that we can somehow control the way in which every animal is killed in abattoirs in other countries. We are not going to be able to have an Australian government inspector standing by watching the slaughter of every animal. The way we can exercise maximum control over how animals are killed is by having the processing done domestically. We know that processing animals domestically will mean a 20 per cent greater return to the Australian economy than exporting them.

The member for Denison has also presented a bill and I will be supporting that because I think it is better than the status quo. But if we think it is cruel to kill animals in this way and if we think it is going to have a better return to the Australian economy then we should be ending the trade now, not in three years time. We should not allow three more years of this cruel practice to continue.

I have been inundated with messages of support since bringing Greens policies to this place. It is extraordinarily disappointing that we are about to have a vote where Labor and the coalition will vote together without offering any solution of their own as to how to ensure humane slaughtering of animals. In doing that not only are they continuing an unethical and unsustainable practice but they are also thumbing their nose at public opinion. Every opinion poll and every member of this parliament would agree that the strong outpouring of public support has been in favour of ending live exports. To all those people who have contacted my office and contacted the offices of other members in this place, who are here in the gallery today, who have been campaigning for many years, my message to all of you is to keep it up. Despite the darkness in this chamber right now, you have shone a spotlight on this issue that will not be removed.

For our part, the Greens will keep up the campaign here and elsewhere to end this trade. We currently have an inquiry in the Senate into our bill to ban live exports. We will await the outcome of that Senate inquiry with great interest. We will return to this place during the life of this parliament to continue to press this issue. I commend the bill to the House. I would hope that those members from both sides who have spoken up against this cruel practice over recent months will be able to support me and the member for Denison in supporting this bill.

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