Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

Rallies are good things. I know; I've organised a few of them in my time. They are good things. It's a good thing in our democracy to have people assemble. We have freedom of assembly in this country. On our side of the chamber, it's freedom of assembly for everyone. On that side of the chamber, it's freedom of assembly when it suits them. They don't like freedom of assembly if workers get together. They send them threatening letters. They are made angry by the idea of ordinary people getting together, but, in this case, they are for it. Maybe it'll be a learning experience for them.

As I said, I've organised a few rallies in my time, and I do understand that there are sharp differences of views about the government's decision in relation to live sheep exports. I absolutely respect the right of Australians who are affected directly by this or have a view about this to put a view to government. That's why, indeed, the government has played its part here. There have been dozens of meetings with Western Australian farmers about these questions. There has been a compensation package that has been developed by the government. There is an ambition there to work with the agriculture sector in Western Australia to develop onshore processing options at scale.

The truth is that nobody could do more damage to the live sheep export trade than was done by the previous coalition government. There were billions of dollars worth of lost trade as that industry fell off a cliff on their watch. Now they're there in the rally, but they did more damage to Western Australian agriculture than is contemplated in what is an orderly phase-out of this sector that has been brought to not one election but two elections.

This is a government that does what it says it is going to do. What I do object to are the dishonest claims that are made by the coalition about agricultural policy. The first thing they should do in terms of agricultural policy is apologise for a decade of neglect. If they were fair dinkum about it, they would apologise for a decade of neglect. Their slogan, developed in their focus groups, is interesting. 'Keep the sheep' is the slogan. At no point does it say, 'Save the live export trade'; it says, 'Keep the sheep,' as if we're going to take them into people's backyards and pat them on their heads. It is the most dishonest campaign slogan.