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

I withdraw, Mr Speaker. Sorry; I didn't hear that.

It is important to understand that, when we remove ourselves, when we cut and run—the Labor way—from this industry, those countries will take it up, and what you will see is the senseless and horrific death of millions of sheep from heat stress. They will die a horrific death. Much of the vision that those opposite were opposed to and made them want to shut this industry down without reforming it—what they will see is that transposed onto ships coming from those countries. Where is the moral compass with that? That's not the Australian way. We stay and get it right and we lead the world.

But it gets worse, because, by not sending these boats anymore, we also lose our influence in the processing of the sheep in the Middle East. I actually had the courage, unlike the current minister, to go to the Middle East, after the Awassi Express, and explain to them and give them confidence that we would continue to send live sheep but there would be conditions and there would be reforms about animal welfare, many of which they had already adopted, not only in terms of shipment but in terms of the processing. They were prepared to do it.

So important is it to them and their food security and their cultural beliefs that they are prepared to spend tens of millions of dollars on new abattoirs. The one that I visited in Kuwait City was brand new, the size of a rugby league field, complete with a viewing area for 2,000 people and a playpen in the corner for the kids. What happens is that you come in, you go out to the yards, you put your tag around the sheep that you want, you wait for the number to come up, you go up to the glass and you watch the sheep being processed and you see that it is processed in the way in which their culture expects it to be. That's respect. That's respect that we've given these countries around their cultural beliefs and their food security. That's the investment that they've made and the importance that they place on it. So that Australia is actually able to send them these sheep, to give them that food security, they live up to the standards that we are asking them to process those sheep in. Now that will be lost.

The animal activists jump up and say that there is leakage out of the supply chains and that you see people take sheep out of the pens and put them in the boot of a car and take them home and slaughter them at home. Well, that's going to become the norm. That's what happens when Australia cuts and runs. That the animal welfare standard that this government is going to sign sheep from around the world up to. How do you value the welfare and the life of one sheep above the welfare and the life of one from another country? If you are morally invested in this as much as those opposite say they are, then how can you do that? How can you morally sit there and value the welfare of an animal from one country over the welfare of an animal from another? I can't. I'm going to stay and get this right. That's why we'll reinstate this industry.

There is this folly about: 'We'll be able to process them all in Western Australia.' Let me give another little agriculture lesson for those opposite. There are some practicalities around this, around agricultural production and understanding the seasonality in terms of supply. If you want to build an abattoir in this country, it's going to cost you the best part of $50 million, probably a bit more. To get a return on an abattoir, you actually have to have it running 365 days a year. That takes a lot of money. It takes a lot of costs in energy, particularly when you've got an energy policy like this mob have. But you've also got to have the staff. In Western Australia, because it's a seasonal industry, these sheep come off and are sent to the Middle East in a seasonal pattern that goes with their production cycles in Western Australia. You can't keep an abattoir going for 365 days a year. No-one is going to take a punt on $50 million to build an abattoir that can only run for nine months of the year.

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