John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to make a point on this motion of Senator Rhiannon's, regarding food security and small-scale food producers, whether they be overseas or in Australia: what about the large-scale beef producers in Australia? This government made such a mess of their industry. What support is being shown to them? It is just incredible what has happened to the beef industry—the decimation of the beef industry—especially at the Top End. We used to export 750,000 live cattle to Indonesia. That has now been reduced to 200,000. Those cattle are now flooding south abattoirs, decimating the beef price.

The Greens were the ones who wanted to ban the whole live export industry. Senator Rhiannon makes no secret of that. They say they are concerned about food security, but the Greens have had all the power in the states and have been shutting up more food-producing land into national parks. Do not come into this place and talk about food security when obviously you campaigned for the opposite.