Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I don't have a live sheep export industry in my electorate, but I am a supporter of agricultural industries and I like to see them thrive. I think they're important for regional Australia. However, I grew up on a cattle farm and worked on another cattle farm nearby, and people who haven't worked in that industry perhaps don't understand how connected you get to the animals. You really care for them, and their welfare is of paramount importance to you as a farmer, and that's the way it was for me.

Given those two competing thoughts, when I had the opportunity to go to Western Australia, I went with an open mind. I joined the coalition policy backbench to visit Adelaide and discuss some things in relation to South Australia, but, then in Western Australia—we went to Wagin, Hyden, Katanning, York and Fremantle, where we saw a live export ship—I went with an open mind, so I want to talk about what I found as someone who went with an open mind.

Firstly, there has been huge reform in the industry, and there needed to be. That reform has addressed animal welfare in a really significant way in relation to airflow, drainage, spacing, food and water, separation of sick animals in transit, vessel compliance and mortality rates. These days, mortality rates are better on ship than in the field on some of the farms that we saw in Western Australia. There's been a moratorium on shipments during the northern summer to address that heat issue. All of this has meant that, when there was a problem—I say 'problem', but it was caused by a geopolitical issue—and a ship that was out to sea for quite a while had to be unloaded, the sheep on that were on that ship had actually put on weight and were in better condition than when they left. I think that speaks to the way that these people care about these animals.

Australia's live sheep export industry is an important issue for Western Australia in particular, employing more than 3,500 people. It's worth $85 million in direct payments to producers, and, with the multiplier effect, that's close to $300 million. The other thing I'd like to say is that there is a market for live sheep exports to the Middle East. That's not going to stop based on what the Australian government decides. The Middle East will source their live sheep from somewhere. The question we've got to ask ourselves is: is it better that they source them from a country with now world-leading animal welfare standards, or should they get them from other places such as Sudan, Somalia, India, Iran and Georgia, where the animal welfare standards aren't as good? I think that's an important issue.

I was also prepared to ask the question—it's been brought up by some of those opposite, and it's a conclusion that you might jump to—about why we don't just build more abattoirs and produce more meat products that we can freeze or send as fresh meat overseas. It doesn't quite work like that. It's not quite as simple as that. The live sheep industry is sort of an overflow industry. When there's an abundance of sheep and the commodity prices line up, it's a very attractive market, but sometimes that doesn't happen. The upshot is—people who have analysed this say—that, if we did build an abattoir to try and take all of this extra meat processing on board, it would probably be closed for half of the year and would not be profitable. So 'why don't we just build more abattoirs and process more meat' doesn't quite work, and I didn't have a full appreciation of that until I talked to the producers involved and talked to people who actually analyse this industry and are involved in this industry all of the time.

I close by saying that I went with an open mind. Animal welfare is really important to me, having previously been a cattle farmer. What I saw was incredibly impressive—what the industry has done to ensure the welfare of animals. It's an important industry economically. If we get out of it, then it will perversely lead to worse animal welfare across the globe because these Middle Eastern markets will source the sheep from places that don't care in the way that we care, and we should care. So I think it's a mistake to go down this path of trying to phase out the Australian live sheep industry, and I urge those opposite to reconsider.

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