Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Just to remind the chamber, this is a biannual report that is given to the parliament from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry recording numbers of cattle, sheep, buffalos and camels that are moved by sea and recording both survivals and mortalities. I remind the chamber that the mortality rate for the six-month period for the cattle that were exported from Australia by ship was 0.1 per cent, one in 1,000 animals. For sheep, it was 0.6 of one per cent, an improvement in fact on previous years and very much below the sorts of levels that would otherwise cause there to be any inquiries.

People often ask what the mortality levels are for animals that remain at home on the farm. I would like to place on record that the figure for adult sheep and cattle in this country is two to three per cent and the figure for lambs and calves—younger animals—is somewhere between 10 and 15 per cent. The statistics show, very validly, that the mortality levels are incredibly low for stock which are moved by sea.

Interestingly, in my own experience and certainly in that of others, the actual gross weight of the consignment goes up during shipping because, in nearly all instances, adult sheep and cattle maintain body weight but younger animals, particularly, gain bodyweight. So the end customer actually gets more than 100 per cent of what they purchased.

The few minutes available to me enable me to actually reflect on the difficulty we are seeing in the north of Australia this year following the suspension of the live cattle trade. Estimates given to recent Senate inquiries are that somewhere between 80,000 and 160,000 cattle will now not leave Northern Australia. That number will be determined by, firstly, the onset of the wet season, at which time cattle very often cannot be moved off stations because the roads are not bitumen and, secondly, the capacity to get stock onto ships. It then raises the question: if those 80,000 to 160,000 cattle which normally would have gone up to the Indonesian market do not go, we are then faced with the prospect, unfortunately, of overstocking on the rangelands. This crop that would normally have gone or those that have gone are last year's calves. Their mothers are in the middle of calving or, in many instances, have now finished calving this year so, effectively, the animals that did not go will be competing with their mothers and their younger siblings, this year's calf crop, on the rangelands this year.

Those are problems we will have to face for a couple of reasons. Madam Acting Deputy President Crossin, you would know from your own experience in the Territory that there have been insufficient funds for many of the pastoralists to actually buy diesel fuel, needed for pumps that operate bores that supply water to stock. The second reason that we learnt of in one of the Senate inquiries was that the pastoralists, for example, did not have sufficient funds to purchase tarpaulins to cover the hay which would be used for supplementary feeding. So, as soon as the wet season starts, that hay will be spoilt and will be of no value.

This debate is, in some ways, relevant to the discussion we have just concluded on the Foreign Acquisitions Amendment (Agricultural Land) Bill 2010, because we are now seeing throughout the north of Australia that the average value of livestock has actually gone down by some 20 to 30 per cent, depending on whether they are steers or heifers. The actual value of the stock for the pastoralists has gone down. Added to that, nearly all of the land held across the north of Australia is leasehold land, not privately owned or titled land, as you would know, Madam Acting Deputy President Crossin. Therefore, we are facing a scenario in which the pastoralists have less equity in their stock and in their share of the land. This, unfortunately, opens up the entire market to overseas buyers to buy up both the unexpired portions of the leased stations and the cattle themselves at discounted prices. Much of the discussion earlier this afternoon was devoted to owned land or titled land, freehold land, in the south of Australia. We have heard discussion on the relevant merits or otherwise of the ABS statistics. A lot more work needs to be done on those. But here we have actually opened up the market for overseas buyers to come in and buy these properties and the stock at discounted prices. (Time expired)