Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

There's a term that has gone down in Australian political journalism history with some infamy called 'ideological bastardry'. It was mentioned by a left-wing journo from the ABC about a Liberal prime minister, but I can tell you right now that the legislation that I think shows one of the biggest acts of political bastardry since I've been in here has been the banning of live sheep exports by this Labor government.

This ban has been done simply on ideology; it hasn't been done for animal welfare reasons—we are the best animal welfare advocates in the world in this industry—and it certainly hasn't been done for economics. It's being done simply because of animal activists and this government kowtowing to animal activism. And they have history with this too. Let's not forget that, back in 2011, the leftie Four Corners program did a hatchet job on live exports and the then Labor agriculture minister shut down live exports overnight. What that did, and what the live sheep export ban does, was more than harm the live export industries that they affect. That affected cattle prices across the country. This live export ban on sheep has already affected sheep prices across the country. It affects every sheep farmer, whether they be on the east coast or the west coast. It affects international relationships. That live export ban back in 2011 did a lot of harm to the relationship between Indonesia and Australia, as this live export ban is doing to many other countries that we export to.

There were people in the gallery earlier and there are people in this building today who are good people. They're people who directly work in the live export industry, or they're suppliers; they might be truck drivers or veterinarians. But all their jobs revolve around the live export industry. I had the pleasure of speaking to many of them when I was in Western Australia a month or so ago, and they're good people. What they do is generate wealth and jobs for our country. I think we should—and we do on this side of politics—thank them for what they do. I think the Labor government should be apologising for the mental health anguish that they're giving to the people who work in this industry, as well as the financial and emotional trauma they're causing.

I can say with great pleasure that, if we as a coalition of the Liberal and National Parties on this side of politics are elected at the next election under the leadership of Peter Dutton and David Littleproud, we will reinstate the live sheep export industry. We will not shut you down. But let's be very clear to them and for them who is shutting them down. Again, so often in the legislation we talk about in this chamber, it is this city-versus-country divide. Who has decided that what our farmers do or how they do it isn't okay? Again, it is these inner-city, elite MPs. They start over there. They're the teal inner-city elites. They're the Greens, who are all inner-city elites. And then we go around to the Labor Party, and the majority of them again are inner-city, elite MPs. Let's be really clear that it is these inner-city, elite MPs who have voted this industry out of existence because they, living in their concrete jungles more often than not, think they know best what farmers can or should do in regional areas. Again, this is just another example of this.

We'll have five people get up opposite and talk about why they're doing this. They will say things like: 'We should process it here. We should do all the processing. We should value-add, and we should process here.' That again just highlights their absolute ignorance, because even the sheepmeat processors in Western Australia support the live export industry. They know that, for the sheep industry in Western Australia to have a future, they need processing, live export and wool. Even the sheepmeat processors know that they need this industry. They'll get up and go, 'No; we can process it all here in Australia.' None of them have probably been to a processor. I have had the pleasure of having a beef processor in my electorate, and right now no processor in the country can get enough staff. We are battling to process the demand for processing in this country right now.

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