Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Agriculture, I present the committee's advisory report, incorporating a dissenting report, on its inquiry into Export Control Amendment (Ending Live Sheep Exports by Sea) Bill 2024, together with the minutes of proceedings.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—This bill was referred to the committee by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator the Hon. Murray Watt, on 3 June. The bill prohibits the export of live sheep by sea from Australia to all overseas markets on or after 1 May 2028. It also authorises assistance to help the sheep industry transition from the live export trade. This assistance can support sheep producers and supply chain businesses by developing greater sheepmeat-processing capacity in Australia and by exploring and developing market opportunities for Australian sheep products in domestic and international markets. The bill fulfils the government's election promise to end the live export of sheep by sea, while providing time and money for the orderly transition to new avenues of production and trade.

The committee recognises the concerns raised by sheep producers and businesses about the transition period. Nonetheless, given the limited size of the export market relative to the sheep industry, the committee is persuaded that the negative impacts resulting from transition can be successfully mitigated with targeted support. The committee welcomes the provisions of the bill to support the wellbeing of those most directly impacted and remains hopeful for continued engagement with industry to advise on additional or alternative measures to support the transition. The committee's report recommends that the bill be passed. The committee has also recommended that the government consider making additional funding available to support this transition, potentially through the 2026 stocktake of industry progress. The committee's final recommendation is that the Australian government continue to seek opportunities to work with the all important Western Australian government to refine and implement the transition support package. It is important that the Commonwealth and state governments work together to ensure the transition is successful and smooth for those affected.

The committee acknowledges the strongly held views on both sides of this policy debate. Indeed, it does run deep for most people who are involved with this and people who displayed that passion whilst we conducted this inquiry. Most of the evidence received by the committee related to the policy ban on live sheep exports rather than the detail of the bill. The evidence was collected during this inquiry. It highlights the deep concerns that many Australians have about the impact of the bill on their livelihood, on businesses and on rural communities across Western Australia. The committee was moved by the passionate testimony provided by farmers, producers and communities. We were also moved by the passionate testimony provided by animal welfare groups. However, during the inquiry, it became clear that, to meet the expectations of the broader Australian community about animal welfare, the live export of sheep by sea must end. An overwhelming majority of the contributions expressed strong support for passage of the bill. Furthermore, a majority of the committee agreed that the live export of sheep by sea presents inherent risks to animal welfare that can only be overcome by this legislation.

I would like to conclude with some words of thanks to all of those who contributed to this inquiry. The committee received over 13,000 contributions from across Australia that represented a range of perspectives. In particular, I would like to thank the individuals at the Muresk Institute in regional Western Australia for hosting the committee at the public hearing. There were close to 2,000 farmers, community members and industry stakeholders who attended the Muresk public hearing. They engaged respectfully with the committee and showed their support to those giving evidence. I would sincerely like to thank all of those people who turned out in Muresk.

Finally, I would like to thank my fellow committee members for their diligence and hard work during the inquiry and their contributions to the report. Of course, I would also like to thank our secretariat, ably led by Fran Denny. The work that they have ploughed through in the last couple of weeks has been quite remarkable, and I sincerely thank them for pulling the report together and working through all of the evidence and submissions. On behalf of the committee, I commend the report to the House.

Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak on the report of the House Standing Committee on Agriculture into the Export Control Amendment (Ending Live Sheep Exports by Sea) Bill 2024 and to present the dissenting report from the coalition members of the committee. I'll start by echoing the chair's sentiments, thanking the secretariat for the work that they did in the impossibly short timeframe that was given to them by the government. It was only three weeks ago, I think, that the Deputy Leader and Leader of the Nationals stood up here and moved that we hold an inquiry into this bill and that the reporting date be 9 October, which would have made a far more sensible and useful report that would have got to the bottom of this particular legislation and the impact that it was going to have on the Western Australian farming communities. I thank my coalition colleagues who are here, particularly the Western Australians, the members who sat on the committee and also the member for Grey, who represents a significant sheep-producing area.

In the course of its hearings, the committee heard overwhelming evidence that this legislation was going to have a dramatic and devastating impact on livestock industries across Western Australia. We heard not just from sheep producers and people who export live sheep but also from people who produce sheep for the local processing market, whose returns will be dramatically impacted. We heard from the southern cattle producers, whose market in co-shipments to the Middle East will be impacted. We heard from the northern cattle trade, who do not trust this government when they say that the cattle industry will be safe from the predations of the animal welfare lobbyists.

Those animal welfare lobbyists that have been working very closely with the government on this bill have made it clear that live cattle is next. We heard evidence from Will Evans from the NT Cattlemen's Association that former Labor agriculture minister Ludwig gave a commitment in 2011 that the live export of cattle to South-East Asia would not be touched, and the following day he closed that industry down. We now know that the Federal Court found that $600 million worth of damage was inflicted on the industry in that very short period of time.

We also heard about the animal welfare impacts. We heard some evidence from a vet who had worked on the boats between 2001 and 2011, who gave some very damning evidence to the committee on the conditions on the boats. We also heard evidence from vets who are currently working on the boats—and since 2018, when there were dramatic changes to the conditions on the boats, which have led to much better animal welfare outcomes. Indeed, Dr Adrian Baker, a vet who has just returned from a trip overseas, said that they are now floating feedlots, which are designed so that sheep gain weight during the voyage. It's part of getting them fat enough for processing, and they are kept in very good conditions.

We also heard from local government authorities—the great southern shires, Kristy D'Aprile, and NEWROC, the northern wheatbelt shires—that the impact on communities, particularly the smaller communities, with the loss of shearing teams, trucking contractors and sheep-handling contractors, would be devastating. This evidence apparently didn't move the committee at all.

I submitted 52 questions on notice to the department of agriculture regarding the cash-for-cruelty scandal. For many Western Australian farmers, this is pivotal to this issue. Evidence has been quoted on the public record—indeed I have tabled some of that evidence in this place—around the payments that were made to the whistleblower, which precipitated this entire issue. The reason we're standing here today, discussing this report, stems from that incident in 2017. We got a one-paragraph response from the department of agriculture, which continues what I believe to be the dereliction of their duty to respond to Western Australian farmers about how this particular case unfolded and whether there is any truth to the claim that considerable amounts of cash changed hands. Animals Australia have denied this. They have publicly denied that cash changed hands, but it would appear that evidence through a statutory declaration from Ms Lyn White of Animals Australia would contradict that public statement. That evidence was ignored by the committee. The government members made every effort to keep that evidence off the public record.

I'll conclude by saying that the coalition members—and I thank them for their hard work in putting together the dissenting report—have recommended that this bill not be supported.

Recommendation 2 is that, if the government uses its numbers to pass the bill in this House, a comprehensive inquiry into this bill be undertaken by the relevant Senate committee to hear from all impacted communities in Western Australia, like members of the industry, those in the supply chain and radical animal activists—give them their say. Consider all the costs and benefits of the impact of the bill, and do not report before December 2024 to allow adequate time for a Senate inquiry to gather all the evidence and make a recommendation to the parliament that is robust, sound and can be taken seriously by this place.

Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House take note of the report.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.