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

The Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System, or ESCAS, was not only implemented in Indonesia but also implemented in the Middle East to prevent Australian sheep from being trussed and shoved into car boots in 50-degree-plus heat before being slaughtered by amateurs. Yet despite recurring ESCAS breaches in Kuwait, Israel, Gaza, Jordan and Vietnam, not one export company has been prosecuted or faced licence suspension. Australians have every right to question why.

Furthermore, Animals Australia's Lyn White has written to MPs to bring to our attention that a significant percentage of Australian sheep shipped to the major markets of Kuwait and Jordan are being killed and exported onwards to other countries as boxed Australian meat. This is ridiculous: contrary to both the interests of our animals, as well as our commercial interests. Australian animals are unnecessarily enduring a gruelling and distressing 25-day journey only to become a profitable meat export trade for another country.

As a matter of urgency, I join with Animals Australia in calling on the Department of Agriculture to mete out penalties on repeat offending export companies, such as licence suspension and prosecution, which will serve to motivate compliance with ESCAS. Decades of horrific abuse of Australian sheep at the Al Rai market in Kuwait and elsewhere will only end when offending live export companies are forced to take their regulatory— (Time expired)