Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Like Senator Macdonald, I am somewhat intrigued by the title that Senator Ludwig now has as the Minister Assisting on Queensland Floods Recovery. I must say: if he is no longer the minister for agriculture, few tears will be shed in the Kimberley and Pilbara areas of Western Australia, where the consequences of the abrupt termination of the live cattle export trade to Indonesia had catastrophic economic effects and caused enormous hardship. It was not only in the Kimberley and Pilbara; it also did a lot of damage to our relationship with Indonesia because of the lack of consultation.

I gather Senator Ludwig has been on a trip, this time to the Middle East, to discuss live cattle exports there. The trade to the Middle East is worth $200 million per annum. There has been a deadline set for export accreditation by 29 February. If this is not met, the trade will grind to a halt. Surely, I ask the Senate, we could not be facing a repetition of the Indonesia fiasco when the trade was abruptly terminated. But there are four problems that I see in Senator Ludwig's supply chain assurance statement.

Firstly there is the absence of government-to-government discussions, which was a key failure in the government's dealings with Indonesia. Secondly, there is a very short time frame before this agreement is supposed to be in place. It is supposed to be in place by 29 February. It is very difficult to see that, given the complexities of dealing with people in the Middle East, that time frame will be met, so this live cattle export trade to the Middle East must also be in some jeopardy. Thirdly, the market systems are unregulated in the Middle East and the operators there are unlikely, I think, to agree to some of the Australian regulator's dema­nds, such as the tabling of contract details and so on. They are more likely to just pull out of the trade and that will mean a loss of our market share.

As I said, the minister has set an arbitrary implementation date of 29 February—a bit imperious when dealing with people in the Middle East. Arabs, like the Indonesians, like to take time in making their business decisions. So we are left in a situation where we must wait and see what happens. I hope that we are not going to see a repetition of the disastrous consequences which followed the decision to cease the live cattle trade to Indonesia—consequences which in the Pilbara and the Kimberley in particular were very severe indeed. As I said earlier, the minister's decision, without consultation with the Indonesian government, did immense damage to our relationship with Indonesia, and that will take a very long time to repair.

Question agreed to.