Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to speak on this private member's bill, Live Sheep Long Haul Export Prohibition Bill 2018, brought forward by the member for Farrer. This is an issue that I and many of my constituents have been very passionate about, demonstrated through more than 2,000 emails that I've received, around the issue of live exports, since the footage was aired on the ABC earlier this year. In my two years as the member for Wills few issues have stirred such a passionate and sustained response from constituents. I was appalled at what I saw in the footage of the live sheep trade. I'd spent considerable time working with Labor colleagues on our position, so it was heartening to see Labor make the announcement to end live export. It was a good vindication of our ability as a party to get our policy right on this issue.

While I'm by no means an expert in the policy area, having seen the footage over the past few years I found it heart-wrenching. I've been endeavouring since I was elected in 2016 to understand, more particularly, the policy direction of a phase-out of the export of live sheep, how that would work, how a transitional arrangement would work, and what it would entail. That's why I argued very strongly for an immediate end and complete ban of live sheep export during these northern summer months. Even as the overall review was underway and being conducted by the government, it was important that the ban take place immediately and, in the longer term, that an overall phase-out of all live sheep exports be taken in a timely manner. Both steps are now Labor policy. Mahatma Gandhi once said: 'The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.' And I think that's a pretty good yardstick for Australia. This bill, essentially, does these two things, which are broadly consistent with what Labor has been calling for when it comes to dealing with live sheep exports to the Middle East.

Despite many chances, the live sheep trade has been unable to demonstrate it is capable of meeting reasonable animal welfare standards. The Prime Minister said he wanted to take a science based approach but has chosen to ignore the advice of both the Australian Veterinary Association and the RSPCA. They both say, categorically, that live sheep cannot be transported to the Middle East during the northern summer period without suffering extreme heat stress. That's all too evident, and we have seen that. This is why Labor will put a halt to that summer trade and phase out the rest of the trade as quickly as practically possible. But Labor will also work with farmers, unions and businesses to develop a strategic red meat industry plan to help sheep farmers make the transition to a model which delivers more sustainable profitability. In addition to offering something better for farmers, Labor's plan will allow more value to be added to the product here in Australia, create more jobs here in Australia and deliver a better result for the Australian economy.

Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How so?

Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll take that interjection. It's about building abattoirs here in Australia, building up the chilled meat export trade and making sure we can export to our partners in the Middle East. That will take a bit of diplomatic work, you know that. The member's quite right: it will take a fair bit of work. But we're prepared to do that because it's the right path forward, both for farmers and for animal welfare.

Despite the push to prohibit live export in the northern summer months, the government's response to the McCarthy review has been entirely inadequate. The Veterinary Association of Australia and the RSPCA have told us there is simply no way you can allow the northern summer sheep trade to continue. That's why a future Shorten Labor government will act on the science and stop that northern summer sheep trade at the first opportunity. We will also phase out the balance of the live sheep export trade over time and impose the highest regulatory standards during the transition period.

At the last election, Labor also set out a very comprehensive plan to protect animal welfare. It included an independent office of animal welfare; an independent inspector-general for animal welfare; a review of the Australian Animal Welfare Strategy and the exporter-supply chain assurance system; banning animal testing for cosmetics within Australia and the importation for sale of new products tested on animals overseas; and the provision of far more transparency and accountability by the Department of Agriculture. I would have hoped that the government would have adopted some of those policies and we wouldn't be in the mess that we're in now.

Labor wants to end the cruelty. Labor wants to ensure our sheep farmers are sustainably profitable. Labor wants to create more jobs here in Australia, and we want to make sure there is animal welfare.

Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I guess I can speak with some authority—as opposed to the person opposite—when it comes to the live sheep export industry, and particularly the animal husbandry export industry, having been a farmer all my life. I've still got a commercial sheep farm and I know something about this. But I think it does hark back—it's interesting—that the same old Labor—

An opposition member: How many sheep have you live exported?

I have live exported, yes.

An opposition member: You've live exported out of Victoria?

Yes, out of Victoria.

An opposition member interjecting—

Just bear with me, bear with me. Same old Labor, same old Labor: ban it, shut it down or tax it. Let's have a little bit of a history lesson, shall we. In 1974 under Whitlam, the federal Labor government paid out a lot of money to shoot cattle. Did you know that? People don't realise that. They don't know their history. They dug pits in Victoria and shot cattle because they couldn't open up exports.

An opposition member interjecting—

Who was the Prime Minister? Gough Whitlam. In 1972, under Keating, when I was 17 years old, we could not shift old wethers. I still remember. As a 17-year-old, I had to shoot sheep. My father said to me, 'Isn't there someone who would take these?' And that was when we started to develop the live export industry, out of Victoria, to move sheep out of Victoria.

An opposition member: It could have been prevented by you.

And I've got to say that, in 2012, under Julia Gillard, once again, there was banning of live exports.

An opposition member: We've got a proud history of banning live exports.

Whitlam, Keating and Gillard—the same old Labor will shut your industry down. Of the 1.7 million sheep exported last year in live sheep exports, 99.29 per cent were delivered in good health. Think about that for a moment. That's less than one per cent. At the moment, if you put 1.7 million sheep in a paddock, you will have greater fatality in than you will have on a boat. And I guess this is the interesting part: people who are captured by a television program and an email campaign, as opposed to people who have been around the sheep industry, are easily swayed.

The live export industry remains a very important part of our animal export industry. And you talk about premium product. I don't mean to ruin your paradigm but we're not live exporting prime lamb. We are live exporting old wethers, who have had a wonderful life producing wool around the farm, and they're not sheep you and I would want to eat. They are certainly sheep that will hit the export market and will be very welcome over there.

There were 10,000 rural Australian jobs dependent upon this $1.4 billion in the trade in 2016-17. These sheep also play a part in a very environmental-focused program within Western Australia, particularly in the Western Australian grain industry, where they are cutting down our glyphosate consumption because of their grazing habits. A lot of the farmers will use those, then value-add them and live export them.

It is paramount that we open many opportunities for our sheepmeat industry. Certainly, we need to have high-value cuts. Our open skies policy has really afforded that. If you have a look at an abattoir in Victoria, the hearts and the livers will be exported into the UAE within 24 hours of slaughter. What we don't have is that capacity in Western Australia yet, and if we want to move forward to opening up market opportunities, it's not just a matter of opening abattoirs; it's also a matter of having the air freight to value-add those animals.

If they want to shut down the live export industry in Western Australia, here is the glaring truth that no-one wants to talk about in the Labor Party. Those sheep will probably come across the Nullarbor on trucks—

Mr Brian Mitchell interjecting—

The member opposite might not want to hear this truth, but sometimes the truth needs to be told. If he remembers the statistic I gave of 1.7 million sheep and 99.29 per cent walking off the truck, I can guarantee that if they come across the Nullarbor their fatalities will be higher than if they go by boat to the marketplace.

This is the point I'm making: if we want to have a government that's going to stand by the Australian agricultural industry, people have to vote for us. We can remember 1974 and the 40,000 cattle getting shot, paid for by Whitlam. In 1992, under Keating, sheep were shot everywhere. In 2012, under Julia Gillard, there was the ban on cattle. Every time Labor is in power, we see lack of markets, we see sheep getting destroyed and we see cattle getting destroyed. It's the same old Labor: they want to shut it down, they want to ban it and they want to tax it.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I give the call to the member for Mitchell. No! Lyons! Sorry.

Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One day perhaps! No, I'll be dead—hang on!

With the live sheep trade's long history in Australia, I can well understand why some farmers and those opposite don't want the trade to end. There's a historical legacy, but it's a trade whose time to go has come. Records show that as far back as 1845 WA was sending live sheep to Singapore. The more modern trade commenced in 1945, with 24,000 sheep exported. And things really took off when markets to the Middle East opened up. Two ships took 12,000 sheep between them, followed by 28,000 loaded onto the Cormorant. Ships today carry more than 100,000 sheep a piece. So far this year 1.3 million sheep have been exported live. And, as the member just said, 1.7 million went last year. Despite all the noise, the live sheep trade represents around just seven per cent of lamb sales nationally. It is a significant—

Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's not lamb!

Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, meat.

Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mutton.

Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mutton, thank you. It is a significant, but nowhere near major, part of our red meat trade. There will be some farmers, particularly in WA, whose business models to date are geared towards growing the live sheep export market. They will need particular attention and care as we transition, as a nation, out of this trade. And as a nation we will transition out of this trade; it's inevitable in coming. Whether it's under a Labor government after the next election, or some time after that under a coalition government, this trade is coming to an end.

I remind those opposite that the Live Sheep Long Haul Export Prohibition Bill we're discussing today is not a Labor bill; it's from a member of the government. A regional Liberal member has put this bill forward. Don't sit over there and think that somehow this is a Labor conspiracy to end live sheep exports. This is coming from a member of that side. The fact is that, despite improvements in welfare over the last hundred or so years, those improvements fall well short of acceptable community standards. Standards in the community have lifted; the community expects more. The live sheep trade cannot meet those standards.

In 1985 there was a Senate inquiry that recommended an end to the live sheep export trade. The industry has tried for 33 years to get its act together and it simply can't. We're not talking about historical incidents of cruelty here. We are talking about things that happened last year and only months ago. When is the next one going to happen? Will it be next week or next month? The fact is that this industry can't get its act together because it can't make a dollar, it can't turn a profit, with good animal welfare standards. With the standards that require good animal welfare, the costs would overtake the profit that they would make This is a low-profit exercise. In the agricultural sector, it's low value.

Farmers are not misty-eyed. We know that animals are born and raised for slaughter. It is their purpose. They would not exist if it were not for our requirement for their meat. Opposition to live export is not a slippery slope towards compulsory veganism. There will be no enforced wearing of Birkenstocks or consumption of tofu. Opposition to the live export of sheep is an acknowledgement that the beasts we raise to eat deserve better than to end their short lives in filth and misery.

I represent a regional seat and plenty of producers of lamb and mutton. It would have been unthinkable 20 or even 10 years ago for an MP who represented an agricultural seat to speak against live export. But there is me. There is the member for Farrer, who proposed this bill. There is the member for La Trobe. That's an outer-metro Liberal seat with one or two cockies in it, I'd imagine. We are all opposed to this trade. Even the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, while not opposing live export per se, has made it clear he finds the current state of the trade to be, let's say, 'suboptimal', because his language would not get past the chair.

Not all farmers in my state are on board with ending live trade. It doesn't really affect them personally, but they don't like the idea of closing off access to markets. I understand that. But there are plenty of farmers in my state who do applaud the moves to end this trade, as they see it as forcing the sector to get more serious about value-adding and about adding a premium to what we sell and produce. Labor will get rid of live exports if we're elected to government. We'll phase it out. That's a welcome proposition for the next government.

Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.