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

What an utter series of falsehoods we have just heard from those opposite—the Labor Party and the Greens! It is a complete tissue paper of falsehoods. I won't say what I really think, because I'm not supposed to use that word in the chamber, but, quite frankly, this is a disgrace. The committee process in the House of Representatives was an absolute farce. It was one week long. They couldn't even read the majority of submissions they received. They couldn't process them. Two thousand Western Australians turned up in Muresk to say: 'No, do not ban the trade. Keep the sheep. Keep our regional communities. Keep our shearers working. Keep our truckies driving.'

This is a trade that deserves to survive, and we on this side will continue this fight for as long as we need to, because what the Labor Party is doing to the Western Australian sheep industry is an absolute disgrace. Every single Western Australian Labor member in the House of Representatives who voted in favour of banning the trade will suffer at the next election. Whether it is the member for Swan, Zaneta Mascarenhas, whether it is the member for Tangney, Sam Lim, whether it's the member for Hasluck, Tania Lawrence or whether it's the member for Pearce, Tracey Roberts—each and every one of them will pay the price for this ridiculous, ill-informed, counterproductive legislation, a piece of legislation that will actually make animal welfare around the world worse. We heard this at Senate estimates. It will make animal welfare worse because we do not just export live animals; we export animal welfare standards all around the world.

We have seen in the last couple of days a Labor member of parliament crossing the floor to support a cause thousands of miles around the world. Well, I challenge each and every Western Australian member of the Labor Party and the Western Australian Greens to cross the floor to support the thousands of Western Australian farmers and their supporters who have turned out in support of this trade. It is a trade that deserves to thrive. It's a trade that supports local communities. It's a trade that supports other parts of the sheep industry. Today a meat processor in WA joined the Keep the Sheep campaign because their general manager in speaking to the issue said, 'If this policy comes into law, the size of the industry in Western Australia will shrink.' That won't just hurt the live export industry. That will hurt the processing industry. That will hurt the local communities. That will hurt the IGA. It will lose the town its doctor. It will lose the town its school.

Darren Spencer, head of the shearing association in WA, talked about the role he and his business play in a small country town in WA. He talked about the $100,000 he spends at the local IGA. He talked about the $50,000 he spends at the local petrol station. He talked about the people who have had jobs because of his shearing teams, people who wouldn't necessarily have had jobs otherwise. He talked about people who had made their lives in that small country town, who had bought houses and who attended the local school.

This is what the Labor Party is doing to Western Australian communities. They are sucking the heart and the lifeblood out of Western Australian communities. It's an absolute disgrace. If those members opposite from WA don't cross the floor on this, they have no guts. This is an issue of fundamental concern to Western Australia. It's an issue that will tear our local communities in the bush apart. Every single one of those Labor members in the House of Representatives will suffer the consequences at the ballot box for what they did to betray Western Australia. This Labor government does not care about Western Australia, and it certainly doesn't care about the bush.