Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'll take that interjection. It's about building abattoirs here in Australia, building up the chilled meat export trade and making sure we can export to our partners in the Middle East. That will take a bit of diplomatic work, you know that. The member's quite right: it will take a fair bit of work. But we're prepared to do that because it's the right path forward, both for farmers and for animal welfare.

Despite the push to prohibit live export in the northern summer months, the government's response to the McCarthy review has been entirely inadequate. The Veterinary Association of Australia and the RSPCA have told us there is simply no way you can allow the northern summer sheep trade to continue. That's why a future Shorten Labor government will act on the science and stop that northern summer sheep trade at the first opportunity. We will also phase out the balance of the live sheep export trade over time and impose the highest regulatory standards during the transition period.

At the last election, Labor also set out a very comprehensive plan to protect animal welfare. It included an independent office of animal welfare; an independent inspector-general for animal welfare; a review of the Australian Animal Welfare Strategy and the exporter-supply chain assurance system; banning animal testing for cosmetics within Australia and the importation for sale of new products tested on animals overseas; and the provision of far more transparency and accountability by the Department of Agriculture. I would have hoped that the government would have adopted some of those policies and we wouldn't be in the mess that we're in now.

Labor wants to end the cruelty. Labor wants to ensure our sheep farmers are sustainably profitable. Labor wants to create more jobs here in Australia, and we want to make sure there is animal welfare.

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