Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Albanese government is taking responsibility for managing a change that has been necessary and inevitable for years—namely, the end of the live export of sheep by sea to the Middle East. It's the end of an industry that has always involved and continues to involve the unacceptable suffering of Australian animals; the end of an industry that has never overcome the intrinsic tendency of this trade to do harm to Australian sheep; and the end of an industry that has steadily and drastically declined over the last 20 years, having fallen now to less than 10 per cent of the trade at its peak.

While the live sheep trade has effectively dropped off a cliff, there has been enormous and welcome growth in the export of chilled and frozen boxed meat. Indeed, Australia remains the largest exporter of sheepmeat in the world, and 2023 set new records for the tonnage and value of sheepmeat exports. That's exactly what the Albanese government is working to deliver. It was great to see Meat & Livestock Australia say that exports are likely to grow further in 2024.

The Albanese government is opening new markets and expanding existing markets for chilled and frozen boxed meat. Last year trade to our traditional markets grew as follows: to China, our largest market, lamb exports increased by 30 per cent and mutton exports increased by 70 per cent; and to the Middle East and North Africa, the second-largest market category, sheepmeat exports increased by 63 per cent. Last year trade to newer markets grew as follows: to the UK, lamb exports were up 17 per cent and mutton was up 75 per cent; and sheepmeat exports to India grew by 160 per cent. Those are the facts of the live sheep trade. That is the scientific reality. That is the economic reality.

It's excellent that we've seen a more than 400 per cent growth in humane, locally processed chilled and frozen box meat. It's excellent that the trade in processed sheepmeat is worth more than 58 times the value of the live sheep trade, which itself is worth less than 0.1 per cent of Australia's agricultural output and less than one per cent of WA's agricultural output. Indeed, in Western Australia alone, chilled and boxed frozen meat is worth eight times the live export trade, and that gap is widening. That is what you call progress. That's exactly what's occurred throughout the history of Australian agriculture—a sector that's always sought to become more productive, more efficient and more sustainable. That's precisely the trajectory that's occurring here, as we leave behind a form of export that's proven to be incapable of occurring without chronic animal welfare shortcomings and recurrent animal welfare disasters.

Sadly, for too long, too many people have ignored and even resisted this inevitable transition, and, too often, they've been prepared to hide behind claims that are fundamentally false. Those claims are as follows: (1) quite bizarrely, that there are no animal welfare issues with this trade; (2) that all the issues, when they become horribly apparent time and time again, are made up by some nefarious animal welfare or inner-city communist conspiracy; (3) that the industry of its own volition has made every effort to own up to and clean up its terrible record; and (4) that live export is somehow an essential and vital part of Australian and, more particularly, Western Australian agriculture. All those claims are false. They are all false. Most importantly of all—I say this in response to the member for Parkes—it has to be noted that over 60 per cent of voyages since 2018 have involved heat stress in sheep. Those are voyages that have occurred since the changes that were forced upon those opposite. That continues today. Mortality is not the measure of animal welfare. You can have animals arrive in the Middle East that are still alive. That does not determine whether or not they have suffered unacceptably, and the evidence is that 60 per cent of voyages after 2018 have involved heat stress.

No-one ever said that managing change is easy. No-one ever said that managing change can occur without making adjustments that ease the transition and lessen the short-term impacts. That is precisely what taking responsibility means. That's what good government requires. It's the complete opposite to what occurred under the coalition. It's the complete opposite of the approach they are taking today. While some may want to stay stuck in the past, and some are intent on catastrophising the transition that has been underway for 20 years, we're focused on managing the inevitable change to a marginal, unnecessary and harmful trade. Again, in response to the member for Parkes, with all of the talk about the terrible impacts that will occur in terms of the vitality of towns in Western Australia and jobs and economic activity and other related social measures, how is it that the trade has declined by 90 per cent without those things occurring? How is it that the trade declined 75 per cent just in the decade between 2012 and 2022, and the WA sheep flock and wool output remained exactly the same?

We're focused on working with the many sensible people in WA agriculture who want to see the $107 million assistance package delivered constructively and effectively and who want to see support to address real issues—competition issues and processing capacities—and to accelerate the incredible market demand opportunities for a stable, humane, locally processed, export-focused industry that continues to promote Australia as the premiere sheepmeat producer in the world not just in terms of volume and value but in terms of quality, sustainability and animal welfare.

A couple of weeks ago, the shadow minister for agriculture, the member for Maranoa, stood at the dispatch box and turned on the fire and brimstone in his compelling style. The member—who I like a lot—was happy to trot out some of the four falsehoods of the apocalypse that I described earlier. I understand why, for political reasons, the member for Maranoa wants to play to his own crowd in that way, but it did involve some selective amnesia that was painful to watch. Afterall, the member for Maranoa was the minister in the aftermath of the Awassi Express disaster. He received the Moss review and the McCarthy report. There are some people right now who are trying to claim there is no evidentiary or scientific basis for the very serious animal welfare failures involved in the live sheep export trade.

If the member for Maranoa is being honest, he really should set them straight. He should quote to them from the advice he commissioned and then received. The Moss review in 2018 stated:

By its nature, live animal exports present a high risk to animal health and welfare.

That came 33 years after the Senate Select Committee on Animal Welfare released its report in 1985 on the live export of sheep, noting that the trade was inimical to good animal welfare. The Moss review made it clear to former minister Littleproud that there was an inherent conflict in the department with respect to supporting trade while at the same time regulating animal welfare; that the department didn't have the appropriate capacity and expertise when it came to regulating animal welfare; and that it was clearly suboptimal to have animal welfare in this chronically problematic trade supervised by vets that were employed by the live export industry. That, of course, continues to be the case today. It's preposterous for anyone to deny the reality that the live sheep trade has always been shot through with animal welfare failures. Those failures were not avoided by the industry or effectively regulated out under the coalition government. The coalition government was always inclined to turn a blind eye, put its head in the sand and blame animal welfare organisations and communities that, like mine, have lived alongside this trade, in order to give the live export industry its 15th, 16th, 17th or 18th 'second chance'.

There's another bit of honesty you will not hear from the opposition in this debate and which you'll certainly never get from the former minister, the member for Maranoa, or from those who pledge blind loyalty to defend at all costs what has demonstrably been a rotten trade. The honesty you'll never hear is that the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government from the outset took steps to weaken animal welfare protections. They were not just relentless apologists for the worst aspects of the trade but actually knocked down some of the protections the previous Labor government had sensibly put in place. They were elected in September 2013. In November, they abolished the Australian Animal Welfare Advisory Committee. In December, the Australian Animal Welfare Strategy inside the department was discontinued; the department's animal welfare branch was disbanded. This was in their first six months of government. No wonder the Moss review found serious shortcomings in the department's capacity to deliver its animal welfare regulatory function.

Here we are, as in so many areas, cleaning up the mess. Here we are, sensibly and consultatively managing a change that's been underway for 20 years. We made a clear commitment to do so at two consecutive elections. We started the work with an independent panel process that met with more than 2,000 individuals and received 800 submissions and more than 3,000 survey responses. The panel held 96 stakeholder meetings, including 14 in-person forums and eight virtual forums. Following that process, the independent panel recommended that government move to set a date for the end of this trade and to provide an assistance package to support farm businesses and expand processing capacity in new markets. That is exactly what we're doing with the bill before the House. It's exactly why I support it so strongly. The passage of the bill has now been recommended by the report of the inquiry undertaken by the House Standing Committee on Agriculture, which itself received a further 13,000 submissions in a short space of time, with 85 per cent of those submissions expressing support for the reform we're undertaking.

The Albanese government, through the careful and consultative work of Minister Watt, is moving forward with a reform that has been a long time coming. For too long, the live sheep export trade has caused the suffering of Australian animals. For too long, the trade has dwindled away to almost nothing, and, for a decade, that occurred under a coalition that wasn't prepared to take responsibility for regulating an industry beset by chronic animal welfare issues and which produced recurrent animal welfare disasters. For too long, sheep producers have made the best of a volatile and dying trade. Now it's time to move forward. It's time to make a sensible and well-managed change to a stronger and more sustainable future. I look forward, personally, to sharing that work, which means focusing on the needs of WA producers and other participants in the supply chain as we make the transition by 1 May 2028.

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