Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak to the benefits of our nation's world-class animal welfare standards. Time after time, we hear the Greens party come in either to this place or Senate estimates and denigrate our primary producers, livestock transport operators, our trading systems and our exporters and say they somehow should be ashamed of their hard work and should be somehow ashamed of having the best animal welfare standards in the world. They only speak to people in capital cities, because if you live out in rural and regional Australia—if you live out in rural and regional WA—you know how hard these men and women work to make sure their livestock is safe and to make sure their livestock is well-treated. You know exporters themselves and know how many changes have been made as a result of all sides of politics taking the treatment of animals seriously.

We export live animals to over 130 countries around the world. It underpins local and regional economies. In particular, the live sheep trade in WA employs absolutely thousands of people and contributes significantly to regional economies. I was quite buoyed by Premier McGowan's commentary when the now agriculture minister Murray Watt of the Labor Party was all cock-a-hoop that he was going to shut down the live trade. Thankfully, the Premier in that state said, 'No, you're not, bozo.' Murray wouldn't know—

Senator Sterle, it's great to have you in the chamber, but that is amateur hour at best—Murray Watt standing up and proudly announcing that the city-centric Labor Party, supported by the Greens party, was seeking to shut down this industry vital to these regional economies.

As the former contributor let the chamber know, this is actually about fulfilling a cultural need in certain countries. It's about recognising that certain countries don't enjoy the level of development that we do. They don't have refrigerated truck networks. They don't have the types of things that we take for granted, and this is meeting a need. If we can actually export safely and humanely, then that's absolutely what we should be doing. But, once again, we have the Greens in here seeking to make farmers ashamed of what they do and ashamed that they're involved in a world-class livestock industry.

Australia provides a variety of livestock classes and breeds. When you look at it, it's not just sheep; it's cattle, buffalo, sheep and goats for feeder, slaughter, breeding and dairy purposes. They are the gamut of livestock that we export from this country. It's not just sheep. You often hear the argument: 'Why don't we just set up all these abattoirs and slaughter them here? We can sell these 130 countries and millions of customers chilled beef, chilled goat and chilled buffalo.' They don't have refrigerators. Their cultural practices are a little different to ours. They prefer to slaughter their own animals, according to their own local customs. Australia gives them that option in their home country, humanely, because if it isn't a live animal from Australia, with our world-class animal welfare protections in place, it is from somewhere else. And I can tell you, if you want to be proud of our country it's our animal welfare policies that you should be proud of.

In terms of slaughter methods used overseas, we've got almost 600 abattoirs that have been approved to slaughter Australian livestock under the ESCAS system. The exact numbers are held by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, as obviously they regulate the trade. In the case of Indonesia, our most important market, pre-slaughter stunning of cattle has grown enormously, from under 10 per cent five years ago to around 95 per cent today. That just shows that each and every day, each and every year, we are getting better and better at ensuring that world-class systems are in place, not just on ship but also when Australian livestock reach the offshore market, so we can make sure that they are slaughtered in a humane way.

In terms of the OPD before us today, I note that the Albanese government says it's committed to integrity and transparency and that the current agriculture minister takes the orders made by the Senate seriously and seeks to provide the requested information at its earliest opportunity. Due to the broad scope of the order, 1,304 initial searches have returned a high volume of documents, so we all look forward to the minister actually being as transparent and as accountable as we seek him to be. The Senate is actually a very important mechanism in our democracy to ensure transparency of the executive government.

In terms of Mr McGowan, as David Littleproud, the shadow agriculture minister, said, if we shut this trade down we're simply exporting animal welfare standards to other countries that don't have our standard, such as Ethiopia and Sudan. We've got a responsibility and an opportunity to get this right.

Some of those opposite say that this is a diminishing market, that we can have all these local jobs and ship off the chilled product, not recognising that the markets actually don't want chilled product—we can already do that. The other argument is that it's a diminishing market and that as these overseas places get more affluent and more developed they won't seek this type of product. That's just not true. I hate to put facts on the table when emotion seems to be the only game in town, but it was worth $97 million last year, $113 million this year—right now—and $130 million-plus in the coming years. So this is a growing market—a growing market for our primary producers and a growing market for our livestock transporters and the regional service industries that support them—right across the country, not just in regional WA.

So I would call on the Australian Greens and the Australian Labor Party—but particularly the Australian Greens—to support Australian farmers, because this is a global market. We export 80 per cent of what we grow, and we need to be proud of how we grow product in this country. We should be proud not just of growing our vegetable crops, our horticulture products, our grains but also of how we raise cattle, sheep, goats and all of our livestock products, instead of continually talking these people down, as if they need to go to bed ashamed of what they do every night. Young people in the cities are crying because they believe the lie that Australian livestock are somehow being treated inhumanely by Australian farmers, or as a result of Australian farmers running their business. It is a lie that is perpetuated by those who seek to shut down our livestock industry and to make sure we don't produce meat in this country.

The sad fact of the reality, if they ever reach the fruition of that outcome, is that some other country that doesn't treat their livestock as humanely as we do will just fill the gap. That's the reality. I support the industry. I look forward to the minister actually providing the documents in the efforts of transparency and accountability, and I look forward to hearing from the Greens on how they want to shut our fabulous industry down. We won't stop standing up for it.

Question agreed to.