Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I say to the member for Hunter: it was the member for Denison himself, the seconder of this amendment motion, who, prior to my speaking, said that it would also involve the live cattle trade, yet the member for Hunter is going to support the member for Denison and thereby, in so doing, concur with his views that the live cattle trade should be shut down. That is exactly where they are going.

The Australian people have been down this path before. I remember that, when I was the shadow minister for water, I was the first minister out on the doorstep, after they closed down the live cattle trade, saying, 'This is absolutely the wrong thing to do and is going to cause massive problems, especially with our relationship with Indonesia, as we are the supplier of protein to the city of Jakarta.' And it was. Now everybody looks back and says, 'That was a terrible idea,' yet the member for Denison has said, 'It's about the live cattle as well.' He is not refuting it, and the member for Hunter is now going to concur with his views and support it, thereby, in so doing, supporting the closure of the live cattle trade. They are back at it again. It didn't take them long. They're back in that place again.

I say: get all the evidence; don't give us a script. Do not give us a somehow conjured-up form of selected facts. Find all the facts. Find the person who took that footage on the Awassi Express. I tell you what: the people have come to my office, so you can give me their names. Find it, so you can have a proper discussion about how this issue was constructed—and I say constructed—for the purpose of creating massive damage to the live sheep export industry in such a way as to shut it down, to inflame views and to create myths and lies about the mortality rates on ships and about exactly where that footage came from. It was not done surreptitiously by someone who sneaked onto the ship; it was done by an employee whose job it was to look after the sheep. That was their job. They made more money out of not doing their job than out of doing it and, by so doing, created massive damage and a massive problem for the live sheep industry.

I tell you what: I'm going to be supporting the live sheep industry, because I am sick of being part of a process of making people on the land poorer. That was always what was happening here. Every move was about taking more rights away from people on the land and taking more income from people on the land. We have to stand up for people on the land and make sure a better return goes through the farm gate. We have to make sure that we maintain the profit that they have, the first in a long time—for some of them, basically over the last decade. They have the right to renovate their kitchens. They have the right to go on holidays. People who work on the land have the same right as other people to make money. What the member for Denison and his supporters want to do is make them poorer once again.

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