Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

My comments go to the Export Control Act 2020 report on livestock mortalities during export by sea for the period of 1 July 2023 to 31 December 2023. This report provides no encouragement for the Labor-Greens government, which seems to remain firm in its commitment to ban livestock export. In that campaign, much is made of the vessel MV Bahijah, which caused controversy around live exports and which has fuelled misinformation and disinformation ever since.

For context, the MV Bahijah was carrying live sheep towards the Middle East in January this year and was turned back halfway due to security concerns in the Red Sea. As a result, the vessel, with its livestock, was at sea for 25 days before arriving back in WA. Due to biosecurity concerns, the livestock could not be unloaded for over a week, yet veterinarians from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry were sent onboard to join the exporter's own veterinarian to check on the animals' condition and provide an independent opinion. Their report indicated no health or welfare concerns, and it was specified that, contrary to public reports, no livestock were required to be offloaded for health reasons. Supplies and replenishments were sent onboard to ensure the ongoing health and welfare of the livestock.

As part of this saga, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the RSPCA—an organisation I have called out repeatedly—described the allegedly horrific conditions these animals were subject to on the vessel. Yet the RSPCA had no evidence whatsoever since no-one from the RSPCA visited the MV Bahijah, and the animal activists' own drone footage showed clean animals sitting in fresh bedding. The truth of the matter is that, while docked in Western Australia, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry filed reports which were updated frequently. During the entire procedure, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, veterinarians and biosecurity officers were onboard, ensuring that requirements were met and that the animals were kept in good condition. The Australian Livestock Exporters Council's chief officer said that, on the MV Bahijah, animal welfare was in fact 'exemplary'—a remark which DAFF, the department, independently verified.

It's evident here that the misleading claims used to push for the ban on livestock export are based on nothing but deliberate misinformation. They want to capture people's love for animals. But don't be fooled. That's not what they care about. It should come as no surprise that activist organisations levy people's compassion, fuelled using false information and blatant lies in a marketing campaign to generate donations. This is their primary funding model—outrage for profit, if you will.

So let's talk about mortality. The shipboard mortality rate for livestock export for the first half of 2023 was found to be just 0.14 per cent—on par with the record lows of 2022—while it stood at an average of 0.17 for the second half. That amounts specifically to a loss of 378 sheep out of 155,776 sheep. These are fairly low numbers when compared to the 4.9 per cent annual average mortality on land, as pointed out in Meat & Livestock Australia's final report of 2018, page 2. On the MV Bahijah, the mortality rate was 0.45 per cent, which is 64 sheep, which is actually under—under—the reportable mortality levels. It must be remembered: the slightly higher mortality rate is attributable to the fact that the livestock were subject to a month at sea and then a week docked in WA in a heatwave. That set of conditions is not the norm; it's highly unusual.

Australia's current regulation of live exports is world's best practice. Supervision of those standards is world's best practice. More importantly, Australian standards are being extended to cover the countries to which these animals are being exported, to ensure end-to-end humane treatment. A tangible example can be found in our exports to Vietnam, where animal welfare practices have been brought in line with Australia's world-leading standards. Health certificate protocols are currently being negotiated with the livestock import industries in Morocco, in Iran and in Iraq.

There's no reason to destroy an entire industry and, with it, rural communities and hardworking and caring Australian farmers. Let's not repeat the mistake made under the previous Labor government, who, in 2011, shattered—