Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We meet here today on yet another occasion when we are seeing shocking pictures of Australian cattle being mistreated in a brutal fashion. Stomachs have been turned by seeing the footage that has now come out of Gaza, where we see, once again on our watch, the sort of brutality, the sort of cruelty that is occurring under this system, under this parliament and now under this government. We know that there have been far too many of these instances which we have seen. We have been told it is a one-off. We have been told time and time again that this is not happening on a regular basis, but I tell you the Australian community, and certainly the Adelaide community that I represent, have had more than enough. I have said in this place on previous occasions that this suffering needs to end. We cannot allow this to continue. I know when in government there were a group of our MPs who worked really hard internally behind the scenes to bring about a system that could end this sort of suffering. But unfortunately we have seen that not only has there not been the progress that the people I represent would like to see, there have been huge and massive backward steps which have occurred in this sector.

It started, of course, when we saw the Abbott government come in and scrap the Australian Animal Welfare Strategy Advisory Committee, a committee that had been put in place to oversee, a committee that had been put in place to bring together representatives from livestock industries and welfare groups as well as research organisations and government. This was a committee whose job it was to find a way through this so that we do not see these kinds of pictures on the all-too-regular basis that we are. But no, this government decided to throw that out the window, to abolish the committee. The agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, in fact defended the government's decision to axe the committee, saying: 'People can suggest another group they would want to disband in its favour. I am not being trite but someone could say "Oh well, we will cut funding to the ABC and we will make the money up there".' That is the response from the minister.

The residents of Adelaide raise this issue with me time and time again and I have told them that I will keep representing their views in this parliament. But, sadly, that is a battle that is getting harder and harder. We now have a Prime Minister who has stood up and said, 'I have to say that we are satisfied with the rules as they stand and we do not intend to toughen them further.' Well, Prime Minister, I challenge you to sit down and watch this footage, know that this is footage that is happening to Australian cattle, that is happening under our system, and then tell me that you are satisfied with the rules. But worse, we have seen the agriculture minister actually come before the parliament on 13 November and say, 'In this quarter we will more than double the number of cattle going to Indonesia. We will stand by this industry, in fact we hope it grows. We hope it increases.' He went on to say, 'We will be a government that is not guided by Four Corners." Well, Four Corners is putting out the facts and they are facts that the Australian public do not want to see continue.

In my electorate, as I said, I have been contacted by hundreds on this particular issue. I might take a moment just to share some of their thoughts in some of their words. Rachel, from Croydon Park, says:

No animal deserves to be tortured and until we can guarantee control over this industry and that there are zero instances of abuse and torture, it is not a good industry. By turning a blind eye to this behaviour and ignoring this appalling abuse, we are supporting the treatment these animals endure.

Winston says:

Whilst I appreciate that this trade is central to the exporters' livelihoods, I am concerned that animal welfare has been overlooked and will continue to be so without sufficient regulation.

We call on this government to stop coming out and bragging about how they do not intend to toughen the rules any further, to actually recognise that the Australian people do not want this done in their name, under this government, under this parliament, on their watch, that the Australian community is horrified by seeing these ongoing instances. This needs to stop, and it is up to us, it is up to this parliament and it is up to this government to make sure that it does. Ultimately, we can stop this suffering, but it needs political will. I urge the government to actually step up to the mark, listen to the Australian community and do something about this appalling abuse.