Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I am sticking to the motion. The motion is very much about Western Australia. Here we go. Point (2)—and you seconded it—moves that this House 'commends the government for standing up for Western Australia and for recognising that Western Australia is the engine room of the economy'. Well, if sheep aren't part of Western Australia and aren't part of that engine room of the economy, then I don't know what is! It's your motion, Member for Hasluck, and I am speaking to that motion.

When you stopped the live sheep exports, not only did you hurt WA farmers; you hurt those Middle Eastern nations which relied on our live sheep. They relied on them for their traditional festivals and they relied on them for their customs, but what we told them was a big fat no. It was a diplomatic disaster. When the then agriculture minister, Senator Murray Watt—who I've got a little bit of time for—made the announcement that the live sheep trade was being banned, do you think he went and faced up to them? Do you think he went and eyeballed them? Do you think he went in front of them? No. He went to Perth and made the announcement, probably via Zoom. That was that; this was this. He got on the plane and came back to the eastern states. Shame on him! Part of politics is actually fronting up to those people who don't necessarily agree with you when you're making decisions on their livelihoods, and he did not. For those Western Australian sheep farmers, I praise them. I applaud them.

Let me tell you that the first order of business when we get back into government will be to restore this trade. This trade leads the world in animal welfare, leads the world in making sure that we take care of those animals on those ships. Yes, they had some improvement to do—no question. But to suggest that other nations which will now fill the void left by Australia if animal welfare is the first port of call for them—if you think that, you're vastly mistaken, because we had in place the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System. We had in place a system by which the sheep's pants were measured, their pen sizes were improved and the ventilation on the ships was improved. It was a good trade. Sheep, at the end of the day, are bred for meat. They're bred for meat.

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