Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Medicare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government's chaotic oversight of the live sheep export trade continues. First it ruled out of the suspension of sheep exports during the hot northern summer, when common sense should have stopped the transport because of the extreme heat. The government then suspended the export licence of Emanuel Exports, the company responsible for about 70 per cent of Australian live sheet exports, creating more confusion and uncertainty. Subsequently, a new export licence and permit was granted to a subsidiary of Kuwait Livestock Transport and Trading, a company with close ties to Emanuel Exports and which itself had previously lost its export licence because of high mortality rates. This is a company with a long list of cruelty allegations, including ESCAS breaches in Kuwait.

The government has simply lost control of this issue and is simply shuffling the deckchairs. It has still not released the Philip Moss review, which was due eight weeks ago and which it now has in hand. It will not appoint an inspector-general of animal welfare. It still has the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources being responsible for the oversight of live exports. It continues to issue export licences. The live sheep export trade is unsustainable. It is cruel; it is unnecessary. The government should support Labor, end the trade and work with farmers to develop a long-term sheep farming strategy.