Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Joyce for his contribution to the debate. Clearly, Senator Joyce is now holding himself out as an expert in abattoir design, construction and consideration. What Senator Joyce misses in all of this is: the trade will continue when we can guarantee appropriate animal welfare outcomes for cattle we export to Indonesia. It is important that the Australian government work consistently with the Indonesian government and industry to ensure we can have that in place as soon as practicable. The onus is on industry to be able to meet the supply chain assurance. That is essential.

What Senator Joyce misses in the whole debate is—and I described this earlier in an answer, which he must have failed to hear—it is important that we can trace animals from the point of departure, through the supply chain to the feedlot in Indonesia and from the feedlot in Indonesia right to the point of slaughter. Without a supply chain assurance that crosses all of those points there is no guarantee that any cattle that leave Australia will arrive in the appropriate abattoir that he mentioned that he has given the tick of approval to. That is what supply chain assurance is about. It is to ensure we can trace and continue to have a transparent supply chain to continue to ensure that we have an auditable and verifiable system. Industry has failed to date to address those four criteria. Industry has failed to address the traceability, the verification, the independent auditing to make sure that animal safety is taken into account— (Time expired)