Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

If that's not an example of deep and categorical decline, I'll go he.

Fortunately, across the same period, the trade in chilled and frozen lamb and sheep meat has grown by 369 per cent. If you want to talk about lamb alone, Australian chilled and frozen meat exports have increased by 532 per cent. In 2022-23 chilled and frozen sheep meat exports earned $4.5 billion compared to $85 million for live sheep exports in the same period. We know that a chaotic, unstable and inhumane trade has declined by more than 90 per cent and it has been replaced by a stable, humane, higher-value and higher-jobs form of sheep meat exports that is already worth 58 times more than the trade it has virtually replaced. One is going like this and the other is going like that. That is change, and it's government's responsibility to manage sensible change and not to misrepresent the truth to rural and regional communities.

While that massive decline of more than 90 per cent has occurred, the sheep flock in Western Australia has remained exactly the same. The wool output has remained exactly the same. There has been no evidence of broader economic impacts or job losses. So all those claims about how a 90 per cent decline is going to cause a loss in the wool clip or a loss in the sheep flock in WA are in denial of the reality. Indeed, in 2021—which is probably the lowest year ever for the live sheep trade—WA wheat-sheep farms were found to be the most profitable of their kind in their world. That report by Meat & Livestock Australia found that our farmers were 'the most efficient, diversified and low-cost producers of sheep meet in the world', and 'sheep farmers in Australia have a high level of confidence in the medium- to long-term profitability of the industry'. That is a good thing; that is excellent. We should celebrate that. It's a reality that that is the case with a more than 90 per cent decline in the live sheep trade. That is a reality of a transition to a higher value, higher jobs sheep meat export trade. Hallelujah!

Unfortunately, the marginal and unnecessary live sheep trade is continuing to produce animal welfare crises, and we've just seen that with MV Bahijah, and, contrary to what industry apologists say, the ESCAS has not been effective, sadly, in eliminating instances of terrible animal cruelty, simply because it's impossible to eliminate cruelty altogether from a trade where that is an inherent risk and a recurrent reality. In fact, only last year we again saw shocking footage on the ABC of Australian sheep. They had their legs bound together and were being dragged alive across concrete. They were being put in the back of cars and taken away for agonising backyard slaughter.

I agree with the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the member for Farrer, who made her views quite clear in saying that the live sheep trade involved 'an operating model built on the suffering of animals'. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition brought her own private member's bill to end the trade because in her view 'this trade in sheep is a shame and a stain on our international reputation'. Never forget that the previous government, the coalition government, contrary to what the member for Grey said about looking to improve standards and looking to increase protections, took steps to weaken the regulation of this industry, cheered on by some of the industry players, sadly, some of the farmer representative groups, which then paved the way for further animal welfare atrocities, like the Awassi Express.

We know there has been serious and proper engagement with the farming community in WA as part of the consultation process that has been carried out under this government and under Minister Watt. Many have put forward constructive ideas and proposals to assist with the transition by looking at domestic processing capacity, new and expanded market opportunities and assistance with planning investment. That's the sensible and reasonable and humane way forward—out of the live sheep export trade.

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