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

Yeah, don't worry about it. It's in the Senate where this thing could stop. The minister needs to show the courage of his convictions if he believes so passionately in the science—that he cannot seem to give.

Even on the weekend on Insiders, when he was asked, 'Why are you shutting this down?' His reply was, 'The industry hasn't done enough.' Tell us what is enough then? Tell us what would be enough to meet the high standards that this minister believes in because he'll have to also tell us what the science is. I challenge the minister to live up to his word and have that Senate inquiry, because there are crossbench senators there that can stop this madness.

I can assure you that a future coalition government will stop this madness. We will give certainty to Western Australian producers, and we'll also give it to cattle and sheep producers around the country because cattle producers are caught up in this, and not just in Western Australia. They can see the contagion that's coming because the animal activists are running this show, and this ban will go from sheep to cattle. It is coming to an industry in a state near you. This is the ideology that's being run by this government. Just understand what it cost you and what it cost us in our reputation with Indonesia the last time we shut down the live export industry to Indonesia.

There is a way to do this. It's about respect and it's about understanding the food security and the cultural needs of these countries, and making sure we're there to do it. That's the Australian way. While I respect the ideology of many of these people from the city that come in and condemn this industry without knowing anything about it, what I don't respect is that you don't have an understanding of what happens out in regional Australia, what happens on these farms, what happens on these boats and what happens in these processing centres.

We're proud of what we've done. We're proud of the reforms that we put in place. This industry deserves another go. It's proven itself to not just Australians but to the world.

I don't want to be part of a parliament that doesn't have the courage not only to look people in the eye when they're going to shut their industry down, but to stand up and to lead the world. That's the Australian way. That's the country that I was born into and am proud to be part of. That's the one that I'm going to stand here and fight for. And I'll ensure that any future coalition government makes sure that they live by those principles in the future, as well, because there's too much to be lost.

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