David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

This is a hard truth that those who want to shut this industry down do not want to face up to—not only those opposite but those from Tasmania that have an ideological view and don't understand the agricultural production systems here and around the world. This a hard truth that Animals Australia and RSPCA aren't willing to admit. They aren't willing to face up to the facts. I challenge those opposite and I challenge RSPCA and Animals Australia today. Show the people of Australia photos and vision of a boat from Ethiopia or Sudan and compare it to one from Australia. Yes, there was a mistake, but the industry reformed itself. They had the courage of their conviction to make sure this industry has a social licence better than anyone in the world. In fact, we lead the world in our animal welfare standards. We don't measure the success of boats and shipments through mortality anymore. We're the only nation in the world that measures it through animal welfare standards. Before we put any sheep on that boat, we measure to the millimetre the length of wool and weight of that sheep. Each boat is given an individual score for how much air flow goes through it, and that determines the stocking density on those boats. However, those countries don't count how many they put on, because they get paid by how many survive at the other end. They work on mortality. Where is the moral virtue in that? Where is it? There isn't any.

We have reformed this industry to be the best in the world, but we are cutting and running, and we will see the senseless and horrific deaths of millions of sheep from around the world. It will be on each one of those that support shutting down this live export industry. It will be on their conscience. It will be on them. Instead, we can stay and continue to ensure that we influence and lead the world with the best animal welfare standards in the world not just in the shipment but also in the processing of sheep in these countries.

This is cultural. It's not just about giving these countries food security but about fresh meat and the way in which they want to process it. How arrogant are we that we can look down our noses and tell those Middle Eastern countries, 'No, you're not going to have live sheep, because we don't trust you'? We've worked with them, and we now have Australian standards in the processing of these sheep in the Middle East. I've been to an abattoir in Kuwait City purposely built because of the standards that we asked the Kuwaitis to have. We didn't impose it on them; they took it on because they saw it was the right thing to do. This abattoir has a viewing area for 2,000 people, complete with a playpen in the corner for the children. This is cultural. It's about how they want their food processed. They go to the pen, they put a tag on a sheep and they watch it being processed right through the chain. They pick the kids up out of the playpen and they go home. But those sheep are processed to our standards.

When we're not there, those standards will no longer be needed. In these countries, as we've seen, there's actually been slippage in some of these processing sectors. We've had the power to go in and rectify that because we've had the courage to say, 'Unless you live up to the world-leading animal welfare standards that Australians want you won't get our sheep.' We have been able to make sure that the animal welfare standards in these countries now mirror ours. But, if we cut and run, that will be lost.

There are those that want to shut this industry down because of an ideological view and a lack of understanding. They think, 'We might be able to send a few on a plane.' That just shows ignorance—to think we might send sheep on a plane to the Middle East for live export. The cost around that is just astronomical. It's just treating people with absolute contempt to say, 'We're shutting this down by sea, but we might be able to do it by air.' It's playing on the ignorance of those that live in capital cities that don't appreciate exactly what this industry is.

For the government to not even have the courage of their own convictions and face Western Australian farmers and explain the science behind why they are shutting this industry down shows an absolute contempt for Western Australians, who do this better than anyone else. There was a mistake in the live cattle industry some years ago. They reformed it, and now we lead the world. So why aren't Western Australian farmers allowed the same opportunity? Why aren't they being given the same opportunity when they have reformed their industry to be the best in the world?

This is about actually facing up to people. We've got a minister that wouldn't even go and sit in Katanning in front of 600 farmers and explain his decision. If you believe so passionately in this, why wouldn't you face up to them? Why wouldn't you support this motion to have a parliamentary inquiry to allow proper process and to allow the 3,000 people in Western Australia who will lose their livelihoods to be heard? 'No-one held back, no-one left behind' was the big statement by the Prime Minister—that is, unless you live in Western Australia. Where are all the Western Australian politicians supporting their industry? There are none on that side. Where are our senators? They all want to shut the industry down.

It's folly to believe the simplistic notion that we can put them on a plane to send them over there. It is uneconomical. Anyone with any agricultural understanding knows that, but those opposite are devoid of that. But also to sit down and say, 'We'll process our way out of this,' is absolute folly, because it is a seasonal industry. When you have a seasonal industry, unfortunately, you can't keep an abattoir going for 365 days a year. The base cost to build an abattoir is $50 million. Then you have to be able to run it with staff. So you will bring staff in for—what?—eight or nine months of the year and then send them away? The economics go against it. Unfortunately, in Western Australia there is this little thing called the Nullarbor. Even if you didn't want to export it, you'd have to bring it back to the east coast and there are these things called transport costs.

This is just folly. These are simplistic notions that this government is trying to use to cover over an ideological view that has no basis—no scientific basis or economic basis. If you are going to be honest with the Australian people, have the courage of your convictions. Explain the science. Tell me, as the Prime Minister could not do in question time last sitting when I asked, one country that has higher animal welfare standards in the export of live animals than Australia. There are none. We lead the world.

Australians don't cut and run. We stay and get the job done. But this government is prepared to cut and run because of animal activists that believe, for some perverse reason, that they are going to save Australian sheep but don't care about the welfare and lives of millions of sheep from Ethiopia and Sudan. How can they honestly look at themselves and say this has any value whatsoever? This is all about a political fix in capital cities, playing on the ignorance of people who live in capital cities and don't understand production systems, don't understand food security in many of these countries and don't understand the culture of those trading partners that we respect. How can we honestly look them in the eye?

In fact, the last time the government went over to tell them they were going to knock this down, the agriculture minister sent his department officials. He didn't have the courage to go to Qatar and Kuwait and eyeball the governments and show them respect. They are among our biggest trading partners. He didn't have the courage; he sent his department. I'll tell you how incompetent the minister is. He sent his department to the wrong agencies in Kuwait and Qatar. This shows another level of profound incompetence that actually is disrespectful to these nations—that you would go and tell a foreign government you are going to take away their food security but go to the wrong department to tell them. This government has shown no regard not only for Western Australian farmers but for our trading partners. These are trading partners who those opposite also believe we'll send all this processed meat to. Let me tell you: if we do not respect them with live sheep, they will not take our processed sheep. I can say that with some authority because I have actually met with the minister and the Prime Minister in Qatar. They made it very clear to me that, unless we send live sheep, we should not think we are going to send processed sheep. That is what they believe. We are not respecting their cultural beliefs. But they have had the courage to respect our animal welfare standards, and we have imported them to another country. We should be proud of the fact that Australia is leading the world and has led the world in imposing these standards that have been adopted around the world. But this government wants to cut and run and cut 3,000 livelihoods out of Western Australia. Who does that without going and actually eyeballing these people?

This is more about the politics of the Animal Justice Party. The truth came out when the date was set when the Animal Justice Party stood up and said: 'This is the payback for us giving our preferences to the Labor Party. That was the deal that we cut before the 2022 election.' This was all about this government taking their preferences and getting into government at the expense of Western Australians. Where is the courage of Western Australian politicians? The only ones who have courage are sitting here behind me. They are the only ones that have the courage to stand up for the people that they represent, backing them for the standard that they have imposed here in Australia and around the world.

We should be proud of what the men and women of Western Australia have done with the live export industry. We should be proud of the reforms that they have put in place and led themselves. In fact, they even imposed a northern summer ban on themselves. Now, because we are slowly but surely getting more science, we are closing that window. The science says that we can actually send these sheep further and deeper into the northern summer. That is the scientific basis we have predicated all our animal welfare standards on. Instead, what the government are doing is going to see the senseless and horrific deaths of millions of sheep. That is on the conscience of those who support this bill. Make no mistake. That vision will come out, and we'll make sure that, when you cut and run, that will be on the conscience of every one of those who want to shut down the Australian live sheep export industry. It will be on your conscience because you are the ones that are assigning the horrific death.

There is a better way to do this. It has been proved that we do this better than anyone else in the world. The Prime Minister can't even name a country that does it better than us. This is all about ideology and politics, not about the practical reality. Those who sit opposite might just want to think one day. Get out from your city suburbs. Get out and understand. Sit with a Western Australian farmer, eyeball them and understand it. Get on a boat, go to the Middle East and see how our sheep are processed. Look at the vision that those who say we have done it so badly have propagated. That's what it will return to when Australia cuts and runs. Australia has never cut and run until now. That's what this government has lowered the Australian standard to. It's all about politics and ideology rather than standing up for Australia. I thought no-one was going be left behind and no-one was going be held back, but everyone in Western Australia is being held back because of the cowardice of this government.

See this speech in context