Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise to speak on the Export Control Amendment (Ending Live Sheep Exports by Sea) Bill 2024 and an amendment that has been put to this bill by the Leader of the Nationals, Mr Littleproud. The first part of the amendment criticises the government for its reckless and ideological decisions to shut down the Australian live sheep export industry by sea.

At the outset, the opposition will be opposing this. Listening to the debate in the parliament, it's interesting to hear the comments from members that are opposing this position, and those that are supporting it. In stark contrast, those that are supporting it, when you have a look at the geographical footprint of where they live, most of them don't have sheep. Their livelihood is not relying on sheep. In fact, the livelihoods of most of the people who are making a contribution in support of this bill do not rely on any type of livestock. I'm in a partnership. We've got 2,000 cattle—a breeders program in Queensland. I know firsthand the devastating impact that shutting down an export industry had on our industry.

It's poignant to point out to those Australians that are listening to this debate that, in the current climate, they're talking about a mandatory code of conduct for large retailers. In the cattle industry, when you took away the prices that the retailers were offering the cattle industry—and let's use hypothetical numbers—if you were getting $2 a kilo at the saleyards and live cattle was giving you $3, it kept the pressure on the retailers to provide that value, because there was another market. But when you arbitrarily take away that third market, the export market—which often pays better than the local domestic market, otherwise you'd just sell into that—you take away that competitive tension, and that's the perfect storm for the large retailers. And it's a storm that domestic growers do not want to be in.

Again, to put it into contrast, it was $3.60 a kilo for cattle heifers that were going to Indonesia, and no-one will ever forget the diabolical, devastating effects that the decision made by the then Labor government to shut down the live cattle export market overnight had on the cattle industry in Australia. It affected not just the cattle producers of Northern Australia. Immediately after those markets shut down, those cattle set to go overseas had to come back into our domestic market. There's not a lot of domestic cattle sold in the Northern Territory. They go out of Townsville. There are big selling yards in Rockhampton and Roma, which absorb a lot of Central Queensland's volumes. But, when you get down to my electorate, we have three small selling yards at Moreton, Silverdale and Beaudesert. When the live cattle export market collapsed, Brahman cows were selling for less than $1.20. It just collapsed overnight because of the old demand-and-supply principle of economics. It just shut it down.

There are lessons to be learnt from the collapse of this market as we aimlessly walk into the same traps again. I've heard those on the other side espouse that boxed beef will be the saviour. Some have quoted 400 per cent; some have quoted 500 per cent. 'This will be a windfall for Australia.' I would just make the point that, if there is going to be a colossal, huge windfall for sheep producers in Western Australia—put aside the protests; I'll get to that later on—the government should guarantee it. I know there's a restructuring plan now around that. There's some money associated there. But the government should guarantee it with a cheque so that, if your business is worse off after this bill comes to fruition, the government will square up the difference. That's if the Australian Labor Party is so committed to destroying those amazing farmers of Western Australia and those families' lives, either intentionally or unintentionally. I don't think anyone in this place comes into this building with the intention of destroying lives, but often there are unintended consequences, and I am fearful that that is exactly what's going to happen to those people in Western Australia who have been protesting this bill.

The second point in the amendment put by the Leader of the National Party is that Australia's live sheep export industry employs more than 3,000 people in Western Australia, including shearers, truck drivers, fodder suppliers, livestock agents, farmers and producers. That is all very true. The amendment goes on to say that these workers now face the prospect of losing jobs, and families that are struggling under financial stress may now face a difficult decision to leave their rural towns and their communities. We saw that in the cattle industry when they shut down the live cattle export. To this day, there is still a contingent liability on the Australian government's balance sheets from a class action being taken by those families whose lives were crippled, by those truck drivers who had jobs tracked in, by those people who owned the saleyards who lost revenue, by those businesses who owned the ships, by stock agents and by the very people that this amendment seeks to look after.

This industry has delivered comprehensive reforms which have secured exemplary animal welfare outcomes. I have listened to the speeches in this debate, and I want to acknowledge the member for Parkes. The member made an amazing contribution—when he spoke about mortality rates on ships leaving Western Australia, going off to potential markets—where he said that in Australia the mortality rates of sheep mean they're more likely to die in a paddock than they are on a ship that has 99.8 per cent survival rates.

If you're listening to this debate for the first time, those on the other side would have you believe that video footage from television shows which have previously been the catalyst for this push—their argument is that these ships are just cesspools for our live sheep export. Australia is one of the leaders in animal welfare, sheep welfare, in this space. If we exit the market, the sheep from other countries that are going to fill that market void, countries who don't have the same welfare standards as us, are going to be treated with a greater degree of cruelty. How is it that those very people who are arguing for this bill will put their head on their pillows each night knowing that sheep are being treated with a greater degree of cruelty when travelling from other countries to these ports than what they would from here in Australia? Shame on you. Shame on you. Australia has the highest standards of animal welfare in the world, and it's something that we should be proud of.

The amendment also seeks to further criticise the government for its mismanagement of this policy to end live sheep exports and the lack of consultation with farmers, sheep producers and impacted communities. It acknowledges that this policy is widely and strongly opposed across the agricultural sector, and it's opposed by me as the federal member for Wright. It's a vibrant, sophisticated electorate. We have very few sheep in my electorate. The main contributor to GDP in my electorate is agriculture. I mentioned earlier that we have three selling yards, but the biggest contributor to GDP is horticulture, vegetables. Today I felt compelled to come in here and offer my voice, hopefully a reasonable voice, to this debate. I know that when the antagonists finish with the live sheep export market, they will turn their attention to the live cattle export market once again. It is in their DNA. It is how they are programmed. They will do it regardless of the contingent liability that sits on our balance sheets. They will do it because they are not motivated by animal welfare, as some would have you believe. Some say they might be motivated by Green preference votes, but who knows?

The amendment also speaks to the concerns that, if the live sheep export industry is banned in Australia, alternatives will be sourced from other countries that don't share the same animal welfare standards, resulting in perverse international welfare outcomes. It calls on the government to immediately reverse its policy to shut down the industry. The reality is we, as a coalition, don't have the numbers in this parliament at the moment to stop this bill from going through the House, depending on the will—and we never want to pre-empt them—of the crossbenchers. Can I suggest that we, as a coalition, give an absolute ironclad commitment to the Western Australian farmers and the Western Australian sheep producers that, if re-elected—and the hardcore reality is that if we are going to be re-elected we're going to have to do it with seats we win in Western Australia—we will reinstate, within our first hundred days, the industry. Many years ago Australia was built on the back of our sheep industry.

In closing, I acknowledge some amazing efforts of members from the opposition agricultural committee who travelled to Western Australia: the member for O'Connor; the member for Grey; the member for Durack; the member for Dawson; the member for Barker; the member for Nicholls; and the member for Forrest, who travelled and met with the seafarers, met with the farmers, learnt firsthand and listened to them about their pain and to their toils. They then brought the knowledge they had gained from those trips back to our party room and shared—some with tears in their eyes—the devastation that was about to affect, intentionally or unintentionally, these poor farmers in Western Australia. If I don't stand tonight to offer my support for this industry and for my Western Australian colleagues, I know the government will come after the cattle industry just as they have gone after the fishermen in North Queensland. It's a disgrace. Shame on them.

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