Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I spoke to this document, which details the list of livestock mortalities for the second half of last year, July to December 2006, in the last sitting period. It includes one particular vessel with a very high degree of livestock mortalities. I spoke then about the significant difficulties there were in getting some transparent information about the reasons behind that high rate of mortality. It took a long period of time and a lot of persistence by Animals Australia, an animal welfare and rights organisation, to find the details. The basic explanation as to why there was this level of mortality was fairly perfunctory and, as it turned out, not particularly accurate. It took until the full information was released under FOI for some of the completely unsatisfactory reasons for the high livestock mortality on that particular vessel to become apparent. To me, apart from the problem of inadequate facilities and inadequate environments for livestock still persisting on some voyages, it also raises the wider concern that all the talk about greater transparency, openness and accountability in the industry continues to be belied by the inability to get to the full information and the full truth.

I have no doubt there have been some improvements on the way things used to be, but it is a simple fact that all the improvements that have occurred in the live export industry over the last couple of decades have come about as a result of persistent and consistent pressure from people in the community concerned about the animal welfare consequences, in particular, and problems. None of it has been generated by the industry itself, yet the industry continues to say that it is using best practice, that it is better than anywhere else, that it is in their own interest to have as good a standard as possible, et cetera. Each time there is enough information that gets out to highlight more inadequacies, there is another outcry, some more action happens, and then we are assured that everything is fine and could not be better until the next scandal and the next piece of information comes out to show that things still fall well short of the mark and well short of what should be satisfactory for a country like Australia that purports to be concerned about the welfare of animals.

The continuing reality is that live exports export jobs from Australia. While it is true that we have difficulty finding enough workers to staff a number of meatworks around Australia, that is a separate issue and simply a reflection of the wider skills and labour shortages in some regions and industries in different parts of Australia. We do not use that as an excuse to give up on any other industry but, for some reason, with live exports we seem to think that it is okay to keep exporting jobs as well as to align ourselves with and perpetuate an industry that has unacceptable animal welfare standards.

It should be emphasised that the continual reports and facts come to light not because of the industry being open but because of the continuing commitment of people in the community who are concerned about the immense, unnecessary and unacceptable levels of suffering of animals involved in the live export trade. There have been a number of pieces of footage shown of the absolutely appalling experiences that both Australian cattle and sheep go through when they are offloaded at ports in the Middle East, in places like Egypt. That is the fate that we as a nation are sending these animals to. The first time footage was produced of an abattoir in Egypt—at great personal risk to the people who arranged to shoot and get hold of that footage—we had the usual denials: ‘They are not Australian animals,’ ‘It is not even in Egypt,’ ‘It is all a beat-up,’ ‘It is all a stunt,’ and, ‘It is not real.’ Basically, a smokescreen was put up, so much so that people had to go back and do it again to show that, even after the Australian government had brought in place a memorandum of understanding with Egypt—which they said would fix everything up—the same problems existed. The minister finally admitted there was nothing they can do; it is not enforceable, and they will just keep plugging away. The federal government has basically given up on even pretending that there are adequate and acceptable animal welfare standards with regard to livestock when they reach their destination.

Question agreed to.