Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move the following motion:

That the House:

(1) notes that:

(a) approximately 15,000 sheep and cattle onboard the MV Bahijah have endured inhumane conditions at sea for more than 30 days since being loaded in Fremantle for export to Jordan;

(b) the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has rejected an application to re-export the livestock for what would have been another month or more at sea;

(c) the Department is now waiting on the private exporter to decide how to proceed, resulting in uncertainty and the prolonged suffering of these animals; and

(d) the longer the animals remain on board the greater the risk of illness, disease and death; and

(2) calls on the Government to:

(a) intervene immediately to ensure the welfare of the livestock on the MV Bahijah by bringing the animals onshore and into quarantine;

(b) suspend all live animal exports through the Red Sea until the current conflict in the region is over and the risk to crew and animals subsides; and

(c) finally commit to a timeline for the phase out of live sheep exports and legislate an end date immediately.

Leave not granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Clark from moving the following motion—That the House:

(1) notes that:

(a) approximately 15,000 sheep and cattle onboard the MV Bahijah have endured inhumane conditions at sea for more than 30 days since being loaded in Fremantle for export to Jordan;

(b) the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has rejected an application to re-export the livestock for what would have been another month or more at sea;

(c) the Department is now waiting on the private exporter to decide how to proceed, resulting in uncertainty and the prolonged suffering of these animals; and

(d) the longer the animals remain on board the greater the risk of illness, disease and death; and

(2) calls on the Government to:

(a) intervene immediately to ensure the welfare of the livestock on the MV Bahijah by bringing the animals onshore and into quarantine;

(b) suspend all live animal exports through the Red Sea until the current conflict in the region is over and the risk to crew and animals subsides; and

(c) finally commit to a timeline for the phase out of live sheep exports and legislate an end date immediately.

There is an urgent need to address this crisis, and this parliament cannot wait one moment longer to do just that. Here we have approximately 15,000 animals, mostly sheep, although it also includes about 2½ thousand head of cattle, who have already been afloat for some 30 days in the stifling heat of WA, and they've travelled across the equator and back to the stifling heat of WA. The conditions on this vessel are already well known to all of us, and it beggars belief that we even have to have a debate about doing something urgently about the conditions on this vessel.

We've seen all this before. We've seen the footage. Remember the footage from the Awassi Express with the sheep just literally drowning in their own filth? Well, spare a thought for the 15,000 animals, mostly sheep, on the vessel off WA right now. For a start, the vessel is stationary, so there's no movement of air across the decks. We can only speculate how stiflingly hot it is and how much panting is going on by those long-suffering animals to try and keep their body temperature down. Yes, there have been vets go out to the vessel, and, yes, the vets have said the deaths have been limited, but what about the 15,000 live animals and the terrible conditions in which they are right now?

Yes, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has denied permission for the vessel to set sail again via the Cape of Good Hope and up through the Mediterranean into Israel, where the sheep and cattle might be offloaded and taken on the road journey across and into Jordan, but, bizarrely, the department is still leaving the next steps up to the exporter. I don't care if that's somehow in the legislation and that's somehow the process to let the exporter make the decision about the next step. If that's what the legislation requires, the government should start acting like the government, come in here this afternoon and change the law, because what is needed right now is urgent, political intervention. If that requires changing any regulations or any laws of the land then it must be done. It demands urgent political intervention.

This isn't just about the conditions on the Bahijah; it's about the state of the live animal export industry more broadly. We know it is systemically cruel, and it's not just about a few high-profile episodes like the Awassi Express and now the Bahijah. You look back over the last 10 or 15 years, and it's been expose after expose, whistleblower after whistleblower. What about all those episodes many people have probably already forgotten about? What about the load of Australian sheep that were offloaded in Pakistan and then we saw the images of the live sheep literally being bulldozed, thrown into pits and buried alive? That's the face of this industry. That's the reality of it. It's not like the Bahijah, the Awassi Express or even those sheep being buried alive in Pakistan was a one-off case. The fact is the conditions on every one of these vessels are absolutely intolerable. This is something that is systemically cruel, and the only way to end the cruelty is to end the trade and to process those animals within Australia.

There's an idea that we've got to keep labouring away with this cruelty on an industrial scale because it's such an important industry, adding so much value to our country and employing so many workers, but that's nonsense. It's complete and patent nonsense. The fact is that live sheep export constitutes about 0.1 per cent of Australia's agricultural output. I'll say that again: the live sheep export industry is one-tenth of one per cent of the value of Australia's agricultural production. It's that tiny. Even in WA, where people are so blind to the cruelty, blindly supporting an indefensible industry, the live sheep export trade is worth—wait for it—one per cent of WA's agricultural output. That's all: one per cent. To put that in perspective, Australia's agricultural output is about $80 billion a year, and the live sheep export trade is about $85 million a year. To the degree that it employs workers, of course I have sympathy for those workers, but no job can justify cruelty on an industrial scale. I'll say that again: no job can justify cruelty on an industrial scale. Mark my words: there'd be a darn sight more workers employed if we processed those animals within Australia and then we exported a premium, value-added product—frozen and chilled meat. It's not like overseas markets won't buy the product when it's been processed. In fact, annually, we export about $4.5 billion of processed lamb and mutton and $85 million of live sheep. Much of that processed lamb and mutton goes to the Middle East, to the exact same markets where we're sending shiploads of long-suffering animals.

The government must stop talking about winding up the live sheep export trade, especially to the Middle East. I give the government credit: at least they're talking about it. This mob over here won't even have a conversation about it. But it's no good talking about it if that's all you do. Let's stop the discussion. Let's have a time line. Let's legislate the time line. Let's give certainty to the export industry or to those people currently involved in the export industry, and to the farmers, so they can start planning and implementing the change necessary for life after live exports.

Opposition members interjecting—

For the people over here who have interjected constantly for the last 8½ minutes, I'll quote a fella called Alexander von Humboldt.

Opposition members interjecting—

I'm saying this to all of you who have been interjecting for the last nine minutes.

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