Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Grey, who, in his capacity as the chairman of the coalition's agricultural policy committee, brought this committee to Western Australia on the week of 5 to 8 March, accompanied by many regional members from across Australia, including the member for Barker, who is here at the table today. The reason that the chair felt it was necessary to bring the committee to Western Australia was that almost 12 months ago to the day this government unleashed what is known as the phase-out of live sheep exports independent panel on Western Australia agriculture. This panel was headed by Mr Philip Glyde, a very well-respected former public servant, who was given a remit to come to Western Australia and, effectively, tell farmers how to cut their own throats. I attended two of those meetings, in Katanning and Albany. Mr Glyde stood up and said: 'We're not here to talk about how the industry might continue. I'm here to talk to you about how we're going to close you down.' That wasn't received all that well, funnily enough. The spirit with which the Western Australian farming community pushed back against the premise gave me great heart.

Here we are 12 months down the track. Let's look at what has happened in that 12-month period. Once the phase-out panel had done its rounds of Western Australia, confidence in the sheep sector absolutely collapsed. The member for Fremantle talked about the profitability of the Western Australian sheep industry in 2021. I'll tell you what it was in 2023, Josh, and it's going to be even worse in 2024. Confidence has collapsed, and, as the chair of the committee mentioned, when we were at the Katanning saleyards Wednesday fortnight 200 sheep were passed in with no value whatsoever and were destroyed at the cost of the grower. That's what has happened to the industry in the 12 months since the phase-out panel went around Western Australia telling farmers that they have no future and that they're going to be closed down regardless of their views and the impact on their community. That is why it was important that the coalition agricultural policy committee visited Western Australia—to give those farmers a fair hearing.

Mr Glyde promised the farmers who took the effort to turn up to those meetings and make submissions to his panel that he would do everything he could to ensure the report he provided to government would be released to the public. Those farmers who took the effort to turn up to get their thoughts and views on the record and who provided written submissions were under the impression the report was going to be released to the public so that this issue could be debated publicly, so that there could be a fair and reasonable debate where the government had the public square to put its point of view and would give the farmers the opportunity to put their point of view. Did that happen? No. Will it happen? No, I don't think it will.

Minister Watt has had the opportunity to visit Western Australian farmers. He was in Western Australia on 19 February. He was invited to visit regional Western Australia to listen to farmers. He made himself available for half an hour to speak with agricultural industry leaders. They saw that as a complete affront and refused to meet with him, and I concur with their position. The minister had the opportunity to get out in regional WA and listen to Western Australian farmers about the impact that his policy, this government's policy, is going to have on their livelihoods. He refused to take up that offer, and I think Western Australian farmers have quite rightly marked him down for that.

So we come to today, where the coalition agricultural policy committee took the time and the effort—colleagues like the member for Barker took a week out of their very busy schedule—to come to Western Australia to listen to my farmers. We also said to those farmers who turned up to that meeting that we would make an attempt to table their submissions in this place; why wouldn't the government want to hear from those farmers we spoke to over the last week? This morning, the chairman of the committee asked if he could table those documents, provided to us in good faith, and he has been told that leave is not granted. This is an absolute disgrace. This is the government running scared from Western Australian farmers telling them how their world will look after its policy is introduced. It's an absolute disgrace, and I call on Western Australian farmers to keep fighting to the bitter end on this issue.

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