Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to oppose the motion by the member for Leichhardt regarding the government's decision to suspend live cattle exports. I am pleased that this motion gives me the opportunity to speak in the House on the Gillard government's significant reforms that firmly position animal welfare as the solid platform on which our live export trade rests. I do so without an abattoir in my electorate and with only one herd of cattle in my electorate, but with a long background in the meat industry I do know a little about it.

As Australian politicians, if we had our druthers, we would want all our cattle slaughtered in Australia and then we would have the value-adding. That is not the reality. I know that Northern Territory and Western Australian cattle are a lot closer to Indonesia. After seeing the Four Corners footage I also know that whenever people see footage of animals being killed it can be shocking. The reality is that you do not get to have a wonderful agricultural industry—our graziers are some of the best in the world and are turning out some of the best cattle in the world, be it the fat cattle of the south, the leaner cattle of the north and everything in between.

When they tried to bomb her, I think the IRA said about Margaret Thatcher's security that the security people have to get it right all the time. The IRA said, 'We can get lucky every now and then.' With our scheme, we responded to a failure in a self-regulated industry. Let us remind people of that. We do not have to go back that far to see it has happened in the past, to when then agriculture minister McGauran was watching a 60 Minutes episode and, bang, before the show was over, he had banned the live export of sheep. It has happened in the past. In the past, those opposite saw that show and we saw a government decision implemented before the show was even over. This situation was not like that.

Obviously, we need to continue to support this important trade. There are a lot of jobs in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and North Queensland connected to the industry, particularly Indigenous jobs and all the other families and communities who rely on this important industry. We need a system that provides checks and balances through which the Australian community and graziers will know that the live export trade can continue. Suspending the trade for a short term was the only way to secure the trade in the long term. Obviously it was not an easy decision by Minister Ludwig; but he does know a lot about meat with his background in that industry and growing up in Charleville and Roma. The decision was the right one, and the only one, and those opposite know it. It was the only one that could actually be made in that circumstance. As I said, it echoed the decision of Minister McGauran from years before, especially when we have a self-regulated industry.

This new system requires Australian exporters to meet international animal welfare standards—hard to argue against. It also allows the regulator to investigate when those standards are not met and to take the appropriate action. The fact that some exporters do not meet the standards we require should not overshadow the progress that many in the industry have made to date; and I do know that it has been tough and that they are considering actions against the minister—it is their legal right to so do. But we also know that the ESCAS system will be the envy of other nations in being able to show individual supply chains: trace the animals, identify the exporters and the abattoirs, and the way that the animals are treated. Obviously some breeding cattle do not fit into that, but I think that any measure of common sense would accept that.

Also, if there are some systemic failings, rather than the hiccups that do occur in any abattoir—having worked in an abattoir, and I know that the member for Lyons has worked in an abattoir a lot more than I have, you do occasionally have some hiccups—now the abattoir will face the consequences. And that is what every grazier would want. As we heard from the previous speaker, graziers love their cattle and they love the welfare of their cattle. So suspending trade in the short term was the only way to implement a system that would give the trade, the jobs and the communities that rely on it a future—a sustainable, dependable and defendable future, and a proud future. Obviously the decision was not taken lightly, but anyone who saw the ABC Four Corners episode knows that the minister weighed up the situation and made the right decision.

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