Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Around 80 per cent of Australia’s live sheep exports—approximately four million sheep—are shipped out of the port of Fremantle in my electorate each year. I receive up to 20 emails, letters and phone calls a week from constituents who are concerned about the trade on animal welfare grounds and because of the lost economic opportunities to create local jobs and increased income from processing the animals in WA and exporting the meat to the ever-expanding overseas sheepmeat market. The public demand for phasing out the live export trade in Fremantle has been such that last week on 26 May the City of Fremantle Council passed a resolution calling on the state and federal governments to bring stakeholders together to work towards a plan for the medium-term transition from live export to onshore processing.

In the meantime, I think everyone would agree that, while the live animal export trade exists, it is essential that we have enforced minimum animal welfare standards. Unfortunately the Western Australian Barnett government has failed dismally in this regard. A six-person animal welfare unit established by the previous state Labor government three years ago has been slashed to just one officer, expected to monitor all livestock matters in a state of 2.5 million square kilometres. If we as a community cannot have confidence that minimum animal welfare standards are being adhered to, it makes the case for transition to the meat export trade even stronger and more urgent.

I present a petition initiated by the Handle with Care coalition of animal welfare organisations, led by the World Society for the Protection of Animals, or WSPA, calling on the government to end the export of live animals for slaughter.

Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member’s time has expired. The document presented by the member will be forwarded to the Petitions Committee for its consideration and will be accepted subject to confirmation by the committee that it conforms with standing orders.