Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

This bill is a treacherous act not just against the good farmers of Western Australia and those involved in the live sheep export industry but further, to the Australian people who go out there every single day and work to put money in the coffers that this government spends irresponsibly. What government in any country would shut down a billion-dollar industry? We have an $80 billion agricultural industry and this government, this Labor-Greens-Teal government, wants to shut down a part of that.

But put the billions of dollars aside—put that aside—what about the cost to those generational farmers, those people who have worked the land for decades and decades, who have put it all on the line year after year, who have paid their taxes, who have done their dues, who will have it all pulled out from underneath them? The government says, 'Well, that's too bad. You will be right; you can retrain. We will give $107 million to share between 3,000 individual farmers and tens of thousands of subcontractors indirectly linked to the industry.' How much money do you think those farmers and subcontractors will see? Not much—nothing. If it's any reflection of the policies that Labor puts out, half of it will go on consultancy fees. That is where it will go.

This is a decision based on two things: ideology and a deal done between Labor and the Greens on a by-election. That's exactly what this is. So, to get the numbers and to get the power—speaking of power, the power is going out!—the Western Australian farmers are being sacrificed. They are lambs to the slaughter, because this government—this Labor, teals and Greens government—doesn't care about the Western Australian farmers. It doesn't care about farmers in general, and we saw that through the biosecurity tax only recently. But let's look at the logic. Yes, in the past, there have been poor practices. We accept that. We have acknowledged that, but what did we do about that? In 2019, we implemented the world's best practice for exporting live sheep. Nobody across the floor has disputed that fact. That is a fact. We measure the fleece on those sheep down to the millimetre before they get on the boat. We weigh the sheep before they get on the boat. There is technology to examine the air that flows through the boat during the trip. We have veterinarians on the boats; we have inspectors on the boats. The results show for themselves. The sheep that get on the boats are putting on weight on the trip. A distressed animal doesn't gain weight. We've had plenty from this side who have had experience in farming with sheep and cattle, who tell us you that you will not get a beast to put on weight in distress. We have an industry with world's best practice which this government, hand in hand with the teals and the Greens, has decimated for ideology and for a dirty deal.

So I say to the Western Australian farmers, you are justified in being outraged, because you have been crushed by the government which is supposed to be protecting you. They have said, 'We don't care about you,' and they have crushed what you have worked for—what your fathers and mothers and grandfathers and grandmothers have worked for for decades and decades, and they don't care. Coming up to the next election, I know that you will remember that—that they said to you: 'We don't care. We're going to crush your industry. We don't care if you lose your home. We don't care if you have overheads. We're going to be the nation that bans live exports even though they have the world's best practices.'

Let's step aside and ask what else we could do. Let's build an abattoir here, and let's kill the sheep here and pack it to go overseas. There are two things there. Firstly, that is not what the countries that we export to want. Why should we be telling them how they should be receiving their export goods? That's the first issue. Why should we be so sanctimonious and carry on like elitists and tell other countries how we will deal with them in trade? Secondly, sheep export is seasonal. If you were to build an abattoir, you would have to run it 24/7, 365 days a year to make it viable. It is just not possible to do that.

One of the biggest issues about live sheep exports is the cultural aspect for other countries. It is a cultural and deeply religious issue for them. We see in Dubai and other places that their abattoirs have viewing rooms for up to 2,000 people to watch the process of that beast or sheep being slaughtered. It is done so culturally, and it is done so humanely.

For us to tell our trade nations how they should be doing things or what they should be thinking is, in fact, an insult to them. It is damaging our reputations with our international trade partners. But is this a consideration that was taken into account in crushing the live sheep trade? No. We just went ahead arrogantly. We know best. Australia knows best. In turn, what's going to happen now? We're exporting 500,000 sheep a year. Where are they going to go? Where are they going to come from to go to these alternative trade nations? They're going to go from Somalia and African countries that have zero animal welfare—none in place. They work on volume and value. They couldn't care less how many animals die.

For sanctimony, ideology and symbolism, you are going to see a substantial increase in the deaths of sheep being exported from other nations. Yet there's nothing from the other side. 'Australian sheep are safe now.' Don't worry about sheep from Africa. Don't worry about the fact that we have the best practices in the world, and they've got the worst practices. They don't have any animal welfare practices; they just load them on. 'Get them on; make sure the boat doesn't sink. We'll toss the carcasses over the side for the sharks once they die. And we'll make money on how many survive at the other end.'

This is just complete contempt by this Prime Minister and, quite frankly, complete contempt by the agricultural minister, who made jokes in a speech at a budget night just recently when the farmers walked out. He said, 'I'm lucky I didn't say that earlier.' He couldn't even go and face the farmers in Western Australia. He increased the carbon footprint by flying over to Western Australia to go to the Commonwealth buildings to make an announcement. He could not eyeball the farmers. I know why he couldn't. It's because he knows he's wrong. He knows he sold out the Western Australian farmers, the Western Australian people, the truckers and the shearers—all those people involved in the industry. He couldn't stand there and eyeball them. If you believe you're right, Minister, why didn't you do that? And, Prime Minister, why didn't you go over there, speak to them and say: 'I'm sorry I'm ripping away your generational legacy. I'm sorry I'm ripping away your job.' Prime Minister, you'd want to hope that the ideology that we shouldn't have prime ministers in this country doesn't come out of there. I'm sure that won't happen.

The contempt speaks volumes, and not just from the Prime Minister or the minister but from both opposite, particularly those on the crossbench. We hear about how terrible this industry is. Well, I haven't seen any sheep roaming down Victoria Road in Sydney or through Wentworth in Sydney. You might go to a petting zoo every now and then, but that just doesn't cut the mustard. Go and walk a mile in these people's shoes. Go and sit with them at the kitchen table now they know their industry is about to be decimated because you've done a dirty deal with the Greens and teals to get your numbers. That's not how a country runs. The government is here to support our industry. This is a billion-dollar industry. You have kicked it into the gutter and you are going to literally kill these hardworking families.

This is one of the most abhorrent bills that I have seen any government introduce. They don't care about the farmers. They say they care about the welfare of sheep, yet what we'll now see is sheep from countries with no protections. We'll see no welfare protections for the animals on board. It'll be worse than ever. But that's not taken into account because they've achieved what they needed to achieve, and that was the dirty deal with the Greens. It will be forever remembered. God hope that we get back into government, because we will repeal this, and we will work with the Western Australian sheep farmers—all farmers—because they need to be appreciated. We, on this side—the National Party and the LNP—are very grateful for their existence.

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