Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I stand here today to strongly support this particular bill, the Inspector-General of Live Animal Exports Amendment (Animal Welfare) Bill 2023. As I've said in this place many times over the years, we've all seen the cruel footage on TV—on A Current Affair, on Four Corners, on a whole range of programs—of animals suffering on these voyages. Animal welfare is very important to Australia. It's important to the Australian community, industry and all our trading partners.

This government supports strong animal welfare standards, and we believe all animals should be treated humanely. That's why we've also said that we will support the phase-out of live sheep exports as well. Yet when we hear the arguments from the other side, it's basically an argument that says this industry will be shut down. That's not the case. All you have to do is go back a few years—just north of my electorate we had the Gepps Cross meatworks, which employed thousands and thousands of people. Those industries were decimated in the nineties.

One of the smart ways of doing business when we're exporting is to do the work here in Australia, value-add to the product, and then sell overseas. One of the fairly horrendous things I saw a few years ago was that we exported live animals or live sheep to Kuwait, who set up one of the biggest slaughterhouses in the world. They box their meat and then send it off to other parts of the Middle East. When you think about it, it's not rocket science. There had been the phase-out of live animal sheep exports—a good policy, in that period, was to ensure that we have an Inspector-General of Live Animal Exports that can keep check and balance what's happening on board these ships when live trade's being exported. And, as I said, this Albanese Labor government supports strong animal welfare standards, and believes all animals should be treated humanely.

In the October 2022 budget, we committed $4 million over four years to establish this independent Inspector-General of Live Animal Exports and animal welfare. The funding in that budget was the first step in delivering on our commitments to the Australian people who expect better of us when it comes to the treatment of animals. Legislation is the next step that is a part of this welfare standard that we've been talking about.

The Inspector-General of Live Animal Exports will have additional functions. The additional functions are to review the effectiveness of: the activities of livestock export officials under the animal welfare and live animal export legislation and the standards that currently exist; Commonwealth systems for the administration of livestock exports under such legislation and standards; the Australian Standards for the Export of Livestock, as part of such systems; and Commonwealth reporting relating to various matters relating to animal welfare and livestock exports. That is the least the Australian public can expect from us. Some of the additional objects and functions proposed in this bill will help to increase the oversight, accountability and transparency of animal welfare in exported livestock. And it delivers on the government's commitment, as I said, to strengthen animal welfare. There is no doubt of that.

The Inspector-General of Animal Welfare and Live Animal Exports will be complemented by an extra $5 million in funding from the 2023-24 budget to renew the Australian Animal Welfare Strategy. Within that strategy is the Inspector-General of Animal Welfare and Live Animal Exports, which will be complemented, as I said, by that $5 million of funding.

For too long there has been an absence of leadership on animal welfare at this federal level. Again I remind members of this House of the footage we saw on TV of horrendous treatment of animals. I think that is unacceptable not only to the Australian public but to everyone involved in the export of animals. We heard the previous member, the member for Forrest, speak about farmers. Farmers don't want to see their animals treated that way. I don't think a single farmer in Australia would want to see animals treated that way. The whole idea is to have the Inspector-General of Animal Welfare and Live Animal Exports oversee the treatment of these animals when they're being transported.

Also dovetailed into this is the policy to phase out live sheep exports. We won't be the first country doing this. New Zealand is already phasing out live animal exports. Other countries as well are talking about it. Already in Argentina there's a move to ban live exports as well.

As I said earlier, we can value-add in this industry. We can value-add by creating jobs here, by creating meatworks industries. In South Australia we have Thomas meatworks in Murray Bridge. It is going gangbusters at the moment processing meat for export overseas and for the local market. In fact, they employ about 800 to 900 people in Murray Bridge, and they are continuously growing. There is no reason why we can't phase out live animal exports and move to boxing the meat here and looking at markets overseas to export to. As I said, a few years ago we did one of the stupidest things we could ever have done. We saw this meat work take place in Kuwait, which now slaughters meat and exports it to the rest of the world. There is a market there. There is a way of doing things better. There is a way of ensuring that our animals are protected. There is a way to ensure that the welfare of animals is taken care of.

We've had the argument that this industry will be decimated et cetera. People still need to eat, whether the meat is boxed or live. The markets will always be there—overseas and domestically. Animal welfare is important to the Australian community. People want to see us act on this. The Australian community expect robust oversight, accountability and transparency of animal welfare in livestock exports. Expanding the office of the Inspector-General of Live Animal Exports will support this and will deliver on the Australian government's commitment to strengthening animal welfare. Therefore, I'm supporting this bill. I'm also a strong supporter of phasing out live animal exports and ensuring that we have the Inspector-General of Animal Welfare and Live Animal Exports to oversee the welfare of Australia's animals.

See this speech in context