Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Again we have this discussion which impugns people on this side as though we have no knowledge of anything to do with rural Australia. Again I point out that I come from a family with four generations of beef producers. I myself am not one, but, if you go to any meeting of my family at any time in Queensland, you will hear major discussions about what is good for this industry and what is not. Yes, everyone knows that there are severe pressures and problems for the beef industry in Australia at the moment.

But to say that all those problems can be attributed to the decision of this government to look at the issue of live cattle export is just not true. The people over there know that because they know the producers better than or as well as I do and it is never a single issue causing these problems. Already we have heard, both in Senator Boswell's questions and in Senator Heffernan's extensive speech taking note of the answers, of a range of issues emerging about what the conditions are like at the moment in northern and western Queensland—and, I believe, in other parts of Australia. There are serious problems in the market.

The decision that this government made to suspend live cattle exports several months ago was an exposure of a serious problem in the system. I defy anyone to say that is not true. There was an issue about the treatment of animals in some abattoirs in Indonesia, an issue which should have been addressed earlier. Again, who can say that is not true? The issue of poor treatment of animals in some of those areas has been identified. There have been statements made, and we even have film—although I do not always trust everything that is on film. But no-one can deny that there needed to be some process put in place to ensure that those scenes that went across the world would not be seen again. The people who work in this industry value their stock. When they produce stock in northern Australia they do not expect that the end result will be the treatment we saw some of that stock receive.

The process that happened after the suspension caused pain. There is no doubt about that. I have spoken with many producers from the north and also from the Northern Territory who have come to this place to talk with us about how they feel about what has happened to their industry. The industry has to look at future processes, the way it markets and the way it operates—again, a point that Senator Heffernan made in his statement. There must be a way that we can effectively work with the department at the federal level, with the departments around the states, with the consumers and with the producers to ensure that we can have a safe, effective beef and other animals trade. I do take the point that Senator Boswell's original question was about beef and not the other animals that came into the further discussions.

Finally, and I believe it has taken too long, we have a process in place which can trace stock from where it is produced all the way through the transit process—which has another series of issues—to where it ends up. It can trace the way it is slaughtered and the way it is brought into the market in other countries. We are focusing in this discussion on Indonesia and that is fair. But there are other areas where this same process must work.

It is too easy to blame one issue for all the problems of the beef industry. Beef prices are at a really bad level. Believe me—our family discusses that at length. However, the prices cannot be attributed solely to the decision to suspend live cattle exports. What we need to do is look at a range of things. I take Senator Heffernan's point—though I do not think his references to that knife added anything—that we need to work together to look at what we do for people who rely on this industry. They are people who have served our country well. They produce fine stock. Australian beef is renowned across the world for its quality.

There have been real problems with beef cattle that were destined for the export market but could not go there. There were major issues, particularly in northern Australian ports, around that time. That is a reality and the department has been taking up that point. This discussion needs to continue. We as a nation have determined that there will continue to be a live export trade. We need to make sure that works as well as possible. But we cannot have beef slaughtered the way it was in Indonesia.