Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

What can I say? I remember very clearly the campaign that was held in Western Australia in the lead-up to the last election. There were billboards and there were slogans plastered all over polling booths across electorates right across Western Australia saying that Labor would put WA first, and we've just heard from Senator Pratt, a Western Australia senator, who is selling out the farmers of Western Australia. These are generational farms. They are farms that have been held by generations of families who are providing futures for their children.

I want to commend Senator Brockman for the powerful speech that he just delivered. He knows better than anyone here in this place the impact on WA farmers because he's from a WA farming family. Actually, I was down at his family property recently, where they used to have sheep. They can't have sheep now, because of the impact this is already having, without the decision and the regime having even been put in place. This is already having an impact on farmers.

I was at the Wagin Woolarama and I saw people signing the petition. There were thousands of them walking up, and there was despair on the faces of families because of this change that is coming in. As I said, there were generations coming up and signing the petition. Young people and older family members were signing this petition not just for their own sake but for the sake of their families and future generations. It is an absolute travesty to hear what I'm going to say is this diatribe of a response—peddled by a WA senator, no less—that this government is providing in this situation.

I've been to the feedlot where they prepare the animals before they go onto the ships. I've seen the incredible welfare standards that have been put in place and the great measures that have been taken to support this industry. I've been onto the ships to see how they're treated. I've seen the ventilation that has been installed and the welfare of these animals when they're on board. I've seen the measures that this industry has taken to ensure its sustainability. They've done everything that the government has asked them to do—and more—and this decision being made just because of some votes over here in the eastern states is an absolute travesty.

Why don't you front up, Prime Minister, and go and speak to some people in Western Australia, instead of just refuelling your jet before you go overseas? You say you're visiting Western Australia by just parking and filling up the plane and flying on to your international visit. Why don't you go and speak to some farmers? Why don't you go and engage with some people on the ground?

You put WA first? My foot! You are not putting WA first. You have made an absolute mockery of your own campaign. Tim Picton, your state director, said that one of the hallmarks of your campaign was that you had a WA office running the campaign over there. What a joke! We've seen that all you're about is these eastern states seats. You're trying to win seats in the inner cities, like in the by-election in Dunkley, just for some preference deals with animal activist parties. Labor, you've turned your back on Western Australia, and you're going to pay for it, like Senator Brockman said, at the next election in all of those key seats: Tangney, Swan, Pearce, Hasluck. Wait till you see it happen in Bullwinkel too, when we win that seat, because Western Australians are furious with you.