Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister's idea of a joke at the AgriFutures Rural Women's Award gala at Parliament House this week was bad form. While addressing some 600 people, the Prime Minister referred to a meal he recently shared with the Indonesian President-elect. He said: 'We had dinner, beautiful Australian beef—not the live export. We made sure it was dead.' Indonesia is itself an importer of live exports, making this joke an insult in itself. The PM should also be apologising for the mental health anguish and the financial and emotional trauma he is causing people in the industry, not cracking bad jokes like we just heard from over on the other side.

Not only is the government showing utter disregard for the industry; they're also treating vital trade nations recklessly and failing to acknowledge the impact on our international trading relations. Kuwait, Israel, Jordan, UAE, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are just some of the markets who import live exports from us for religious and cultural reasons. We are effectively telling them that what they do is not okay. We are a world leader in animal welfare with live exports. We are proud and we should be proud about what our farmers do and how they've reformed and gotten better at what they do.

The Prime Minister is wont to use the cliched slogan 'No-one left behind, no-one held back'. Well, Prime Minister, the live exporters are feeling left behind and they are feeling held back by your bad policies and bad jokes.