Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Wong) and the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Senator Watt) to questions without notice asked by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (Senator Birmingham) and the Leader of The Nationals in the Senate (Senator McKenzie) today relating to an incident involving a Chinese military jet and to live sheep exports.

In particular, I want to take note of Senator Watt's answer regarding the live export of sheep from my home state of Western Australia. The decision announced on Saturday, with just a few hours notice to the agriculture industry—just a few hours to those farmers who are going to be directly impacted by the ending of this key component of the sheep industry in Western Australia—is a disgrace and a betrayal. It's a betrayal of Western Australian farmers and, in fact, of the state of Western Australia.

Minister Watt tried to ignore the fact that the cat was belled by the Animal Justice Party. He tried to put it to one side and say, 'No, it was already our policy, so what the Animal Justice Party said doesn't matter.' But this is what they said—and I'm going to read it again. The Animal Justice Party posted, after Minister Watt's announcement:

We are proud that the AJP could deliver the knockout blow by demanding the end of live sheep export as a requirement for our preferences at the Dunkley By-election in March.

'Requirement for our preferences at the Dunkley by-election in March.' And guess what? It's not just the Animal Justice Party's statement after Minister Watt's announcement. There's actually proof. There are actually multiple how-to-vote cards. You can see the how-to-vote card from early in the campaign, which has Labor second last or last. Gee! And then you can see the how-to-vote card from after this deal was done, after the sheep farmers of Western Australia were sold out by this Labor government, and guess where that puts the Labor Party? No. 2.

So what the Animal Justice Party have put on their website is the truth, and no matter how Minister Watt obfuscates, no matter how he tries to cover up what this government has done—because the fact is the report was still being considered by government at this time. In fact, the report, which implements a four-year phase-out, was informed by a work commissioned by this government—by Minister Watt's own department—and by a serious consultant in the industry, Episode 3, and what did that serious, analytical look at the industry recommend? It recommended an eight- to 12-year transition because that's what you would need to rebalance a flock on a farm, if you were going to go down this horrendous path. You'd need eight years for those farms—those farming families, some of which have been there five or six generations. You'd need eight to 12 years to transition the flock on those farms—to change their business model. When Minister Watt was doing this dirty deal with the Animal Justice Party behind the scenes for a Melbourne city electorate, what did he come up with? A four-year ban, not enough time to transition flocks, a ridiculous amount of money—a pittance for what this is going to cost the Western Australian agricultural sector.

These are real people's lives. These are real people's businesses. These are multigenerational farming families that have been in this industry for decades. This is not just some abstract change in policy; this is human life. I've spoken to those farmers out on the farm—something that Murray Watt didn't have the guts to do, on Saturday, when he made the announcement. He came to Western Australia, sure. He flew in on a jet, waltzed in to the CPO in the middle of Perth and did a Zoom call, including some of the industry groups, but did he go out into the bush? Did he talk to actual farmers whose livelihoods are directly threatened? This is not some hypothetical. This is real peoples' lives.