Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I remind the minister of the part of my question that asked whether or not the Australian government would put extra energy into expanding the already quite significant slaughtered meat trade from Australia to Middle Eastern countries. I also ask who the minister is relying on for information about how well these concerns are being addressed. Clearly Minister McGauran was surprised to see the footage on 60 Minutes, even though the Animals Australia organisation had notified him about those concerns as far back as last July. Is this another case reminiscent of the AWB situation, where the government and the minister simply rely on assurances from industry that everything is going fine and do not listen to anybody with concerns about the way the industry operates?