Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I represent an electorate that has lived with the reality of live export for many years and which has direct and regular experience of the endemic shortcomings in this trade. The decision by the government to move towards reopening live sheep exports to Iran is a matter of dismay to my constituents, who cannot understand how a system that currently produces animal welfare atrocities on a regular basis is expected to do anything other than greatly expand the unacceptable treatment of animals—in a country that not only has little regard for human rights but also virtually no animal protection laws.

Australia's ESCAS supply chain regulatory system still contains flaws, as evidenced by the steady flow of incidents which reveal the horrible, inhumane treatment of animals through the live export process. It is disappointing to hear the minister celebrate the potential to send more than a million sheep annually to Iran as a replacement for the loss of market opportunities in Saudi Arabia, which only occurred because Saudi Arabia rejects the ESCAS regime. I am concerned and my constituents are concerned that in the rush to send hundreds of thousands of sheep to Iran animal welfare risks will inevitably be underestimated and overlooked, and that those with responsibility when it comes to both regulatory and industry oversight of this trade will continue their recent history of pretending there isn't a problem right up until the very moment when we are again confronted with graphic visceral evidence of animal mistreatment as a result of the diligence and scrutiny that only animal welfare advocates appear willing to supply.

What do animal experts and advocates think of the government's decision? The statement issued by Animals Australia rightly noted that:

The government is talking about opening a new market when there is no one even policing the old markets. Once again, we are pushing animals into a country where there are no local laws to protect them from cruelty.

RSPCA Australia's chief executive, Heather Neil, responded to the announcement by saying:

I think there's enough examples with ESCAS going terribly wrong and the government doing really very little in order to bring exporters into line and to take away their licences, when they've shown time and time again to be getting it wrong.

Then putting animals into another country, with another country's laws, and there isn't a good track record of people doing it well. It's really setting it up for disaster.

As I have made clear many times, neither myself nor the many thousands of Australians in my electorate and elsewhere are ignorant of or ambivalent about the importance of economic opportunities for Australian farmers. Indeed, it is in recognition of the fragility of the live export trade that I and others continue to argue for much better regulation and for a clear plan to transition out of live export altogether in favour of a more dependable and higher yield chilled and frozen meat industry, which will also create more Australian jobs. Rushing to recommence live sheep exports to Iran is a decision fraught with danger and I fear that the severe penalty to be paid for this poor judgement and for the questionable process to follow will be reckoned in the suffering of thousands and thousands of sheep.