Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Senator Ludwig) to a question without notice asked by Senator Boswell today relating to live cattle exports.

The live cattle ban was placed in June 2011. I actually feel sorry for Senator Ludwig sometimes because I do not believe that he really wanted this. He was overridden by his party. He has been made to look completely inept and weak because he has never been able to stand up to the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities and other ministers that have overridden him. It was due to a perfect storm. The dollar was high, there was a drought and then there was a ban on live cattle. The repercussions of that have been felt right across Northern Australia—across north-western Australia, the Northern Territory and North Queensland. I have seen stations that have come onto the market and gone broke. They are just holding out to see if something turns up. Stations that have not changed hands for 100 years are going on the market and the price is so depressed.

The bans shattered the confidence of the Indonesian authorities. They relied on Australia. They thought we were honourable people. They could not believe that someone would just cut off their protein supply in a matter of a couple of days. They could not believe it.

I was one of those who went over to Indonesia to try and sort this mess out, about two weeks after it happened. The Indonesians are always terribly polite, but I could see that they were very disappointed. They were shattered by what we had done to them. They trusted us and we let them down badly.

Initially we were exporting 770,000 head of cattle, to a value of $480 million. In 2010, that went down to 520,000 cattle at a value of $320 million. But after the ban took place we exported just 278,000—well under half of what we had been—to the value of only $188 million. The Indonesians cut their quota in 2013 down to 267,000 head. They believed they had to be self-sufficient in cattle because they could no longer trust us as a No. 1 supplier.

And the hurt—the agony—and the financial hurt that you, the Labor Party, have caused out there because you marched to the Greens' band has been unbelievable. I have never seen such devastation. It would not have been so bad if you could have got rid of the cattle somewhere else, but what in fact happened was that the eight per cent of cattle raised for live export that should have gone overseas were forced back onto the market. It is a question of supply and demand. When that eight per cent hit the market it dragged down the price of the cattle that were meant for the domestic market and export markets in boxed beef. Yet no-one ever thought about that.

That is the trouble with the Labor Party—they never think about the repercussions their actions are going to have. For instance, they never thought about what was going to happen as a result of a carbon tax—they never thought a carbon tax of $400 on a car was going to have any effect! Mr Oliver, in charge of the unions, demands of the Labor Party that the workers not be penalised. They should not be penalised. But why do you guys insist on putting $400 on a car through the carbon tax and expect the car to be able to sell in Australia? It is the same thing with the Indonesian cattle export industry: no-one even thought of the repercussions. You have halved the trade since 2010. The industry is dying. Indonesia does not trust us. What a way to start being the food bowl of the world: with one stroke of a pen, pulling the rug out from under Indonesia and saying, 'Righto; there's no more meat coming in; you'll have to go and eat fish or chicken or whatever you eat.'

There are probably a million cattle out there that should have been exported. They should have gone overseas; they should have gone on the boats. But they are out there now in the stations. The stations have not been able to get rid of that year's cattle and they are doubling up. There is not enough feed. Consequently, the graziers are having to go out and shoot the cattle. (Time expired)