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

I certainly admire the attempt by my friend from Western Australia, Senator Ghosh, to deal with this issue seriously. I think he approached this in a sincere and serious way. Unfortunately though, we didn't have an attempt by the minister to seriously answer the question that was asked by Senator Brockman in relation to saline products that are available to vets and to animals across Australia. She seemed to take it as a joke in the way that she approached the answering of that question.

In doing so, in not taking it seriously, she referred to the banning of the live export of sheep in this country. One person that has not taken that issue seriously is, of course, the Prime Minister of this country, who joked at an event last night in front of the agricultural industry experts that were here in this building. The Prime Minister joked about the ending of that live export trade. How could this Prime Minister do such an atrocious thing—joke about the ending of the livelihood of farmers, who are reliant on this for them, their families and their community—in the way that he did?

The Prime Minister has demonstrated time and time again that he does not take Western Australia seriously, that he does not understand Western Australians and that he does not understand the industries that we rely on. Whether it be the agricultural industry or indeed the resources industry, we are seeing pressure on every sector across industry in Western Australia, and our Prime Minister—this Prime Minister, their Prime Minister—needs to take his responsibilities seriously. To appear in front of those there at that event last night—people who put their livelihoods on the line every day by going to work and making investment decisions—stand up on that stage and joke about their industry and the ending of their industry when they are hurting more than ever is absolutely appalling.

Someone that needs to take something seriously is the Prime Minister. When you come in here, we need to deal with matters that are of importance. This Prime Minister in this building last night demonstrated that he doesn't get it, and he doesn't get Western Australia.

Question agreed to.