David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) Australia's live sheep export industry employs more than 3,000 people in Western Australia and is worth $85 million;

(b) since 2018, this industry has delivered extensive and comprehensive reforms which have significantly improved animal welfare outcomes;

(c) Australia has the highest standards of animal welfare in the world;

(d) Australian sheep are high quality, disease-free and perform well in feedlots and at sea, creating demand overseas for them as a premium product; and

(e) if the trade is banned, alternatives will be sourced from countries that do not have Australia's high animal welfare or quality standards;

(2) condemns the Government for its reckless and ideological decision to forcibly shut down Australia's live sheep export industry;

(3) recognises that the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is the independent regulator of the live animal trade, and any decisions made in respect to the trade should always be predicated on science and independent of government;

(4) calls on the Government to urgently explain what factual evidence or science its decision to ban the live sheep export industry is based on; and

(5) urges the Government to immediately reverse its decision to forcibly shut down this industry.

I come to this chamber to speak on the live export sheep industry, one which I can speak about with some authority because I was the agriculture minister in 2018, when we were confronted with some challenges over which the industry put their hands up and took ownership. From that, the industry showed maturity that you would expect. They engaged in a process to reform the industry to make sure that we, as Australians, as exporters, have the best animal welfare standards in the world—and we do. We moved from a mortality methodology of assessing the success of sheep boats to one of animal welfare, one which is predicated upon science. Tragically, this new government has walked away from this industry, predicated on the fact that, apparently, the science doesn't add up.

Let me explain the science of the live sheep industry on a boat and how it happens. We actually measure the number of pants per minute of a sheep on those boats. We measure the airflow through those vessels to make sure we make the stocking densities that are appropriate to ensure there is no heat stress and, in fact, that animals are putting on weight. But we go even further than that: before they even get on a boat, to the millimetre we will extend how much wool the sheep can have on them and the weight of the animals. No other country does this. In fact, we are leading the world in an area that I think we should be damn proud of instead of the cutting and running this government is undertaking. There are 3,000 families in Western Australia who will no longer have a job in an industry that the government will shut down, predicated on one incident that the industry themselves acknowledged and move forward from.

I cast the minds of those opposite back to 2011, when the cattle industry had an incident in Indonesia. They shut down overnight, and you, the Australian taxpayer, are now paying probably close to $2 billion in compensation, but the cattle industry were given the opportunity to reform, and reform they did. Why is it that the cattle industry was given an opportunity to reform and prove their animal welfare credentials but sheep producers and exporters in Western Australia are not provided that same opportunity when, in fact, the methodology and the science which they have adopted themselves is the most advanced in export industries not only in Australia but around the world?

For all of the moral virtues of those opposite in shutting down this industry, they are exporting the animal welfare standards to other countries—other countries that don't have our standards. In fact, they are still working on a mortality methodology. Let me tell you: they don't count the number of sheep that go on; they put as many as they can on these boats. They're not measuring the airflow through these boats. They're not measuring the pants per minute of the sheep on these boats. They're not measuring the length of wool or the weight. They simply get paid on what's left when they get the boat to dock. We are saying we are going to export the animal welfare standards to countries that have less than ours. Where is the moral compass of animal activists? Where is the moral compass of this government? The welfare of a sheep in Australia should be no different from anywhere else in the world. We have a responsibility to stay, get it right and make sure that it's done properly.

There are those who say, 'Let's have this notion where we'll process them all here in Australia.' That is folly. That is nonsense. Let me tell you, because I have lived experience in this, particularly in the Middle East. I have met with the ministers. In fact, the Prime Minister of Qatar made it very clear to us that, unless we sent them our live sheep, they would not accept our processed sheep. Again, you export those standards to other countries that do not have our animal welfare standards. That is a perverse outcome. That is not common sense. This government, in going over to the Middle East to try to articulate to them that they are going to phase out this industry, in only what can be described as an international incident, sent the department to the wrong ministry in Kuwait to notify them that they were going to take away their food security. That is not just incompetence; that's appalling.

So I say to those opposite: please. The 3,000 families in Western Australia deserve a second opportunity like the cattle industry was given and has taken up. Western Australian farming families deserve that opportunity too.

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