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

by leave—I want to draw to the attention of the House a petition which has been given to me by Solomi Argiropolos of Springvale in Victoria. She has collected some 815 signatures. I think I need leave to present it as a document because the petitions committee has not certified it in accordance with the standing orders.

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Wright. The document will be received as a tabled document. This document will now be referred to the Standing Committee on Petitions for consideration.

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

I thank the member for Wright. The petition which Miss Argiropolos has organised seeks a permanent end to the live export of all animals. The petitioners have expressed the view that there is no such thing as humane live export of animals, that animals suffer intolerably in very long distance voyages to Indonesia and the Middle East on ships where there are few workers to look after up to 100,000 animals, that there is terrible overcrowding, that thousands of sheep on each ship can starve because they have never before eaten dry pellets which they cannot recognise as being food after a lifetime of grazing on grass, that sick and injured animals are rarely spotted in densely overcrowded pens and that their bodies are only discovered at the end of the journey. The petitioners observed that 80 per cent of Australian abattoirs are already halal certified and Middle Eastern supermarkets are already selling these Australian chilled meats, making live exports no longer necessary. She expresses concern that animals arrive in countries which have no animal welfare laws and are subjected to indescribable horrors there. The petitioners demand an immediate and permanent end of live trade to Indonesia and demand the confirmation of an end date for all live animal export.

Miss Argiropolos has gone to some trouble to provide further information about this issue to me regarding the value of processing meat in Australia and supporting Australia’s meat processing industry rather than engaging in the live export trade. She further suggests that Australia should follow the precedent set by New Zealand when it introduced stringent guidelines back in 2004 which have ended the live export trade there, but of course New Zealand has a very lucrative domestic meat processing trade. (Time expired)