Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to voice my strong support for responsible and sustainable livestock production in Australia. This is quite timely, given the latest round of mischief making from animal rights activists in the past week or so. Unfortunately, those of us in rural and regional Australia are getting used to guerrilla attacks from the likes of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals with the use of unverified footage showing cruelty being inflicted upon livestock, which is supposedly Australian.

Any proof of cruelty to livestock sickens me as I sure it outrages any fair-minded Australian. I have had the privilege of growing up around farm animals and I have always had a tremendous respect for the way Australian livestock producers care for their animals. The golden rule of running stock, whether it is sheep or cattle, pigs or poultry, is that a happy, healthy animal is a productive animal—and, what is more, a productive animal is a profitable one.

While my parliamentary work keeps me busy,, I made time to spend a day in February drenching lambs with my father and sister on our family property at OB Flat near Mt Gambier. Believe me, there are more pleasant places to be on a hot summer's day than in the sheep yards but, like farming families across this country, we know that drenching our stock is a vital safeguard in the fight against internal parasites like worms. Such welfare measures are important part of any profitable, sustainable livestock enterprise, and millions of dollars are spent across the country on promoting and protecting animal health. I am not sure how extremist, anti-farming groups like PETA reconcile such a massive in investment in animal welfare by producers with the myth they seek to proffer about farmers not caring for their animals.

I was concerned to see accusations last week levelled at Big River Pork, a major pig abattoir situated at Murray Bridge in my electorate of Barker, by way of uploaded footage which was covertly recorded. This is just the latest in a spate of footage obtained by criminal extremists breaking the law and trespassing onto private property, putting themselves and farm animals at great risk. Most of these reckless crusaders would not even understand the sort of quarantine breaches such illegal intrusions entail, especially for more intensive operations such as chicken sheds, piggeries and feedlots. But as they go traipsing from property to property under the cloak of darkness, they are putting the very animals they purport to campaign for at serious risk by breaking the stringent biological controls in place on such farms.

Given the frequency of such instances of trespass, I am pleased to note that the South Australian parliament is currently considering new laws which would outlaw the use of hidden cameras and microphones on private property. The proposed laws would provide severe penalties for breaches by individuals and organisations and for those who publish or broadcast the material gathered. Such laws will provide significantly stronger protection for innocent producers from the growing threat of animal activist mischief makers trespassing on farms.

Of course, the release of the footage from Big River Pork, which aroused some media interest, was followed soon after by PETA's release of footage supposedly shot in an Australian shearing shed featuring examples of livestock cruelty. Irrespective of the provenance of the footage, that vision has no place in modern Australia—no-one refutes that. Unfortunately, instead of appropriately reporting this incident to police so that the perpetrator could be dealt with, the ill-informed extremists sought to hold onto that footage and release it at a period of time which would cause the most damage to the industry.

In the name of so-called animal welfare they would consign every hardworking Australian farmer to social welfare. That might be their wet dream but it is certainly not mine, because I know that those most offended by this footage are those who work with animals day to day. I was pleased to see Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce respond quickly and appropriately to the release of this footage. He quite rightly said that the footage was not representative of how the industry operated. As someone who has spent his fair share of time in a shearing shed, I can confirm to you that the minister is spot-on.

It seems that PETA and their comrades need reminding that it is the police and the RSPCA that are actually responsible for animal welfare legislation and for prosecuting those that breach same, and for ensuring investigations happen and, where needed, charges are pursued through the courts. Animal activists seem to think they can act as judge, jury and executioner on these matters, which is a scary prospect. On behalf of the responsible and sustainable livestock producers of Australia, I say to these criminal extremists, 'Stop harming Australian farmers by pursuing your calculated criminal campaign.'