Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

FARUQI () (): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill.

Leave granted.

I table an explanatory memorandum and seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

I am proud to introduce this bill to amend the Export Control Act 2020 to prohibit livestock sheep export by sea from Australian territory on and after 1 May 2026. I am introducing this bill because the Australian people have well and truly had enough of the cruelty of live sheep export. Now more than ever they want this trade in misery to end.

Animals are not mere cargo. They are living, breathing, sentient beings. They deserve a dignified life, free from suffering, just as much as we do. And the reality is that live export is totally incompatible with animal welfare. Governments have facilitated this trade for decades, condemning thousands upon thousands of animals to horrific deaths and unimaginable suffering.

In 1966, 67,000 sheep died aboard the Unceb.

In 1980, 40,000 sheep were dead on the Farid Fares.

In 2003, 5,500 sheep perished on the MV Cormo Express.

In 2014, 4,000 sheep, dead on the Bader III.

In 2017, 3,000 dead aboard the Al Messlah.

In 2017, 2,400 sheep died on the Awassi Express

These are just some of the horrors of this barbaric trade that we know about. There are many thousands more animals that suffer in extreme heat, in crammed and overcrowded filthy containers and go hungry and thirsty. The industry has long tried to hide and downplay the true extent of suffering involved in live export, and the government has aided and abetted the industry. To this day, there is little transparency about the suffering onboard these ships of misery.

It is only thanks to tireless and courageous efforts of animal welfare advocates, whistleblowers and activists who, time after time, have exposed the cruelty of the industry and the failures of the government, that we know the extent of suffering live exports causes animals. These exposes have brought the need for urgent reform to the fore.

In August 2017, Faisal Ullah, a 25-year-old young Pakistani trainee navigation officer bravely exposed the calamity that occurred on the Awassi Express. By April of 2018, Animals Australia and 60 minutes helped reveal the sickening images of thousands of live sheep and lambs being cooked alive from heat stress, crushed to death from overcrowding, or having their throats slit by crew members and thrown overboard.

Shortly after, in 2018, my Greens-led bilI to end the long haul export of live sheep and lambs during the northern hemisphere summer passed the Senate, but the then Coalition government gagged debate in the House of Representatives. Over 70% of voyages since 2018 have reported heat stress in sheep while in the equatorial, Persian Gulf and Red Sea regions. Yet it took another 4 years until the government imposed a ban of sheep exports through the Middle East during the northern hemisphere, only to then weaken this ban. Even small improvements to the live export trade have taken far too long, and sheep continue to suffer.

There have been dozens of reforms, reviews and inquiries since the industry started, but the cruelty continues.

It's crystal clear that we cannot stop animal cruelty in live export by getting rid of a few bad apples, or tinkering around the edges—animal torture is absolutely baked into the industry's business model. Time and time again, we have seen that nothing can be done to make live export ships safe for animals. This cruel trade is irredeemable and the only option is to shut it down.

Again, in 2019, I stood in this place and introduced a bill to end the export of live animals for slaughter. I held up a truly gruesome photo of the suffering of sheep on the Awassi Express, telling the government that the system is broken and this cruel trade must end. And late last year we were reminded just how broken the system is, when the WA government inexplicably dropped its charges of animal cruelty against the Awassi Express operator Emanuel Exports, a decision that absolutely stinks of political interference and leaves no one held accountable for the horrific deaths of 2,400 sheep.

The disasters have continued this year. After more than 9,200 sheep and 3,700 cattle were subjected to torturous heat on the MV Bahijah for eight straight days back in 2018, in January this year a further 16,500 sheep were left sweltering through a heat wave off the Western Australian coast on the very same ship. This is after they had already been on this ship for weeks because of the terrible decision to send the ship through a conflict zone.

The government should never have approved the Bahijah to leave the shore of WA to head through a conflict zone in the Red Sea, exposing sheep on board to an even longer and more dangerous journey. It's clear the government is completely held to ransom by exporters which will pursue profit above all else, and neither give a damn about animal welfare.

If it was high time to end live export back in 2018 when my bill passed the Senate, it's beyond time to shut the industry down right now. This cruel trade has completely lost its social licence if it ever had one.

Independent polling commissioned by my office from June 2023 showed 85% of Australians support a phase-out of live sheep export. And in Western Australia, where the majority of the live export industry operates, 71% of people support the phase-out according to independent polling commissioned by RSPCA Australia from May 2023. This is on top of the petition to end live export I tabled in the Senate back in 2018 signed by almost 238,000 people.

The Greens and I have worked alongside animal welfare advocates, activists and the community on this issue for years. Thank you to them, and thank you to the tireless work and support of Australian Alliance for Animals, RSPCA Australia, Stop Live Exports, Animals Australia, and Vets Against Live Export, among many others. The pressure of the community has pushed Labor to promise to ban live sheep export at the last two elections, and finally look at doing something to improve animal welfare in this country.

But people are losing faith bit by bit. Labor says they are committed to ending live sheep export, but then first announced that they won't actually be phasing out this cruel trade in their first term, and now they're telling people they don't know when they will bring in legislation to phase it out.

This is not good enough. Delay after delay, excuse after excuse, while animals continue to suffer and die.

It's now almost a year since the government first sought advice from a panel on phasing out live sheep export, and a whole 4 months since the phase-out panel provided its advice—yet we have seen no action.

Across the country, people are demanding a fast phase-out. An overwhelming 80% of submissions to the panel support the phase-out, and independent polling commissioned by my office shows 59% of Australians want the phase-out to occur within 2 years. Over 43,000 Australians signed a petition calling on the government to legislate an end date for live sheep export in this term, and for a phase-out within the shortest possible timeframe. Just last week, I was proud to join activists in Perth as the Prime Minister and his cabinet met, calling on Labor to urgently legislate the date to end live sheep exports.

This bill prohibits live sheep export from Australia from 1 May 2026 because this date is the start of the northern hemisphere summer period during which live exports by sea are especially harmful for sheep due to heat stress. It reflects the urgency with which the phase-out should occur and also provides sufficient time for market adaptation and a reasonable phase-out. A longer phase-out period creates uncertainty and places animal welfare at increased risks, as standards slip due to declining industry investment over the phase-out period.

The live sheep export trade has already declined by over 70% since 2018, accelerating a longer term decline that has been happening over 2 decades. Australia's domestic meat export trade is worth many times more than that of the live export trade, and is only projected to grow further in the short to medium term. Transitioning the remaining portion of exported sheep to on-shore processing will provide a net increase in jobs and provide more opportunities for local supply chains.

Australia is falling behind globally on animal welfare. Increasingly, the international reputation of Australia's broader sheep and wool industries are put at risk by being associated with the live export trade. Yet like with fossil fuels, Australia seems intent on coming last place in the movement to ban live exports. New Zealand banned the export of animals for slaughter in 2008, and last year banned the export of all livestock by sea. And in the UK, a ban on the export of livestock for fattening and slaughter is on the government's legislative agenda.

It's time to roll up our sleeves and get this done in Australia.

The live export industry has seen the writing on the wall. And they are fighting like hell with their well funded campaigns, to push for an end date that is so far out into the future, literally hundreds of thousands of animals will continue to suffer as they have been for decades. The Labor government must stare down these last ditch attempts by a brutal industry that uses animal cruelty as fodder for profits, and commit to a phase-out within a 2-3 year period.

If the government is serious about animal welfare and ending live sheep exports, it must move now to legislate an end date within this term of Parliament, providing certainty for all, and then work towards the details of a swift phase-out plan.

The Parliament is sitting here waiting to pass legislation and make this a reality. The government must support this bill and put an end to the cruelty and suffering of live sheep export once and for all.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.