Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Hansard source

Our government supports this motion. The government remains strongly committed to ensuring that high welfare standards are maintained in the live export trade. That's why our government, with the support of industry, committed to independent observers on live export voyages to provide transparency and oversight to the highest level. In 2018 the government announced our intention to further improve transparency of the export trade by releasing the summary reports of the independent observers publicly. We remain committed to ensuring transparency is upheld to ensure that the confidence on animal welfare outcomes that the government expects is given to the trade. The Minister for Agriculture recently met with live exporters in Western Australia, and they also want independent observer summary reports made public. The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, as the independent live export regulator, is responsible for setting operating rules for exports and uploading independent observer reports, and is working hard to deliver the independent observer reports in a timely manner.