Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This motion again represents the Nationals' failures to stand up for farming communities to lock in a jobs-rich future for them. The deception lies in the figures themselves. I am disputing not the figures that are there but the figures that are left out, because the live export trade represents just 0.4 per cent of Australia's trade exports. It is the chilled box meat trade that is worth 12 times more, and that is where the jobs growth could occur in rural Australia. If the Nationals would stand up for farming communities to create jobs, they could be created across northern Australia by opening the abattoirs, and that is what is so urgently needed. The growth in trade in this sector in the chilled box meat trade, which is growing at an exponential rate, with beef and sheep way ahead of the live export trade. (Time expired)