Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I table a document relating to the order for the production of documents concerning the independent observer report on MV Al Kuwait.

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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I rise this evening to speak once again on a topic that's very close to my heart given both my background with a family farm and that I am so close to this industry. Before coming to this place I was for some time a policy director with the Pastoralists and Graziers Association, where I dealt with both the sheep and cattle livestock industries in Western Australia. I have an obvious affinity and love for the agricultural industries, and the live export industry is a key part of that broader industry.

If I've said this once, I've probably said it a thousand times, and I'm going to say it again: we do not just export livestock; we export the highest animal welfare standards in the world. We export those to our trading partners, who in many cases do not necessarily have the same standards that we have. So, in ensuring that the livestock coming out of Australia are handled through our ESCA System and through world-class facilities with a very careful attention to detail in both the transportation and handling of that livestock, we are exporting the highest level of animal welfare standards to the world.

This government is committed, in fact, to growing the value of agriculture by facilitating trade and increasing market access around the world, including a strong and sustainable livestock export industry that underpins the livelihoods of family farms. And it's not just those family farms. I know those family farms well; I was out just last week with my good friend Rick Wilson, the member for O'Connor, in places such as Darkan, Kojonup and Katanning, and I've visited many other farming communities before. It's not just the farming families that seek to preserve this industry with the highest standards. It's the truckies. It's the feedlot operators. It's the yard hands, the stock hands in those feedlots and on board the ships. It's the hay producers, the pelletisers that produce the feed for those voyages. It's the mechanics. It's the shearers. It's the veterinarians that keep the livestock healthy.

This industry spreads right throughout regional Western Australia in particular, and it's important to remember that this is a $1.7 billion industry. It supports around 10,000 jobs directly. In the case of the sheep part of the livestock industry, that's mainly in my home state of Western Australia and it's mainly in one federal electorate: O'Connor. It also extends into the federal electorate of Durack, of another good friend, Melissa Price, and there is a small quantity sourced out of South Australia. But the vast majority of the live export trade in sheep comes out of one electorate, and that means it doesn't necessarily have the political muscle. What it does have is the strong support of this side of the house, this side of the Senate and this side of the other chamber. The government is a strong supporter, committed to the economic wellbeing, the sustainability of the live export sector, with the highest levels of animal welfare and with a regulatory regime that is absolutely based on the best available science.

You've got to remember that the vast majority of live export voyages are undertaken without incident. In fact, the most recent voyage that happened during the northern summer moratorium period, under an exemption, had an absolutely outstanding result: 33,341 sheep and a mortality rate of 0.08 per cent. There were 28 mortalities, not one of them attributable to heat stress. I challenge all those who talk about the contents of this independent observer's report and selectively pick from the report to go onto the website and watch the time-lapse footage of the sheep aboard that ship throughout that entire journey. The footage is available, and I would encourage all those Australians who have concerns about the industry to go and watch that footage, because that footage will demonstrate that the welfare of those animals was very well looked after throughout the voyage. It's there for everyone to see.

This is an area where the industry has grasped the issues they faced in the past couple of years and made significant improvements. They are committed to openness and transparency. That is why, through organisations such as the Sheep Collective and the Cattle Collective, they are publishing extraordinary amounts of information, available to the general public, so that they can see the reality—not the confected reality that some in the activist community want to portray but the reality of what is happening on these live export voyages. You can see this for yourself if you go to the Facebook pages or websites of the Sheep Collective and the Cattle Collective. Together they call themselves the Livestock Collective. You can see the time-lapse footage for yourself, and I would encourage every Australian who has some concerns to go and look at that footage. Don't trust the words of the activists; you cannot.

In the few minutes I have remaining I want to quote from the conclusion of the independent observer's report—again, to demonstrate that this was a highly competent exercise, an export vessel that was undertaken with the highest levels of probity and care for the livestock involved:

Exporter arrangements were observed to be implemented during the voyage, and to be compliant with ASEL requirements. The observer stated that the causes of the mortalities were not linked to any systemic failure of the exporter. The observer described that the AAV,—

That's the Australian authorised veterinarian—

stockpersons, vessel's officers and crew carefully monitored sheep during their daily activity routines and were committed to the positive outcomes for sheep.

And this is not just aboard that vessel; this is right across the industry.

Having come from a farming background, having spent many thousands of hours with farmers on farm, in yards, in shearing sheds, I know that the vast, vast, vast majority of this industry is absolutely committed to the highest standards of animal welfare. And anyone who says otherwise is, quite frankly, lying. The industry is committed to improvement, and you can see that in the hard data. If you look at the mortality rate for live export vessels going back over a period of years you see a slow and steady decline in the level of mortalities. You see constant improvement.

Yes, the industry has improved its activity over the last two years in the face of some public concern and strong government action, but that is not the industry coming late to this party. It has been on a constant journey of improvement for decades. That is something that I am absolutely committed to making sure Australians understand through my voice in this place. The livestock industry has been committed to the welfare of animals throughout my life and continues to do everything it can to improve standards whilst supplying the highest quality protein to our important trading partners. The industry has demonstrated that it has a strong, ongoing and enduring commitment to the welfare of livestock and to supporting our overseas markets that we've developed over time and which we would leave in a very difficult position if we were to ever even hint at withdrawing from them.

So, once again, I commend the industry for the changes and the constant improvements they've made over a very long period of time. I look forward to rising in this place at future points to continue to talk on this very important topic.

Sam McMahon (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also wish to speak on item 728 regarding the vessel Al Kuwait. I regard myself as having a little bit of authority in this area. I'm not only a fully qualified and registered veterinarian; I have been an Australian accredited vet and worked in the live export industry for over 30 years, including extensively in the preparation of livestock for export and also accompanying animals on export voyages. I don't know if anyone else in this place has undertaken livestock export voyages. Certainly quite a few people seem to have quite strong opinions on it, but I would suggest that they probably don't have relevant experience.

We in the veterinary profession all accept that the slaughter of livestock closest to the point where they originated is the ideal experience so that they are not transported. Again, that's ideal. We also accept that it's not practical. If you are a vegan and you want to have that position and you don't eat meat, that's fine. That's your choice. But for those of us who choose to eat meat it is not practical to have a cow, a sheep, a pig et cetera in our backyard to raise it up and slaughter it. I think we accept that that's just not the situation we live in. Therefore, animals do have to be transported for slaughter. They are transported regularly in Australia, generally by road, from their place of origin to abattoirs. We accept that occurring.

The industry of live exports overseas is to fulfil a demand, sometimes by our very close neighbours, for protein, for meat. There are many reasons why livestock are transported live as opposed to being slaughtered in Australia and the product being shipped overseas. One of the reasons is the fact that there's no cold chain in a lot of the countries that we export to and so there's no way to keep meat cold, chilled or frozen. People don't have that capacity in many of these countries and in many of these regions. So they require livestock to be transported alive to close to where people live so that they can be slaughtered and consumed fresh on the day. That's certainly the case throughout a lot of South-East Asian countries, and it's why we export extensively to South-East Asia.

As a veterinarian involved in the live export industry, I would like to take you through a little of the routine of the industry. Livestock are gathered from properties. They are transported to export hubs, mostly, where they are inspected by veterinarians that are accredited. They are inspected for their health and welfare, and animals that are not fit to travel are pulled out and receive treatment. Depending on where they are from and where they are going to, veterinarians will often conduct blood tests for various diseases, provide treatments for internal and external parasites, and provide vaccinations and so forth according to the protocol. All those animals that are assessed as fit to travel will be transported to the ship and loaded onto the ship, supervised by an Australian accredited stockperson and an Australian accredited vet.

Once on the ship, there are obviously rules regarding stocking densities for the different species that are transported. They will be housed in pens on the ship. A daily routine is that the stockperson and the vet will separately go around and inspect all of the animals. The stockpeople will pull out any animals that are looking unwell, are distressed or have anything wrong with them. They will be placed in a hospital pen. The veterinarian will then come and assess each one of the animals and assess what treatments are required. These ships carry extensive amounts of veterinary drugs and equipment for treatment of animals, so any animals requiring treatment will be treated by the vet as frequently as is required—that might be once a day or it might be three or four times a day—and they will be re-inspected every day. If any animals die on the voyage, the majority have a post-mortem conducted on them by the accredited vet to assess the reason for them dying, and that that is included in the report. Inspections continue throughout the day and reports are conducted. Independent observers are obviously free to go wherever they like on the ship and observe everything that's happening, and then they report on what they have observed. That's the daily routine of live export.

Having said that it would be ideal to slaughter animals right where they're going to be consumed, with that not being possible, this is absolutely the most humane way that we have to transport animals overseas so that our neighbours and countries we trade with are able to access the same sort of protein and food that we do. Some figures on this industry. Live export produces approximately $1.7 billion yearly to our economy and employs 10,000 or so people directly and indirectly. It's a very, very important industry and a big employer and supporter of families in rural, regional and remote communities.

The MV Al Kuwait departed at a time when we ideally don't have vessels departing, due to heat. I would like to read some of the comments of the independent observer. Extracts from the report of the independent observer are freely available on the internet. In the words of the independent observer:

All vessel staff from the master to members of the livestock crew were observed to have active involvement in the positive health and welfare outcomes for the sheep. The AAV—

the Australian accredited vet—

stockpersons and crew communicated effectively and worked well together.

They went on to say:

The observer commented that no sheep were observed to be in severe heat stress or distress from heat during the voyage.

Over 33,000 sheep were on this voyage. There were 28 mortalities. That's extremely low. None of these mortalities were due to heat stress. They were due to things such as liver disease, cardiac disease, infection and organ failure.

It's also worth noting that there were 103 sheep that were hospitalised and received treatment during this voyage. One hundred and two of these hospitalised animals recovered and were discharged. In a normal paddock situation the majority of these conditions that these animals were hospitalised for and treated for would not have been treated. A lot would not have been identified. They would not have been treated. It is the fact that these animals were inspected so regularly that they were pulled aside, they received treatment and they recovered. I would put to you that if the 103 out of this 33,000 had been at home in a paddock situation many of these animals would have suffered and died due to their conditions. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted.

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The ban on live cattle exports early last decade is the same old, same old, same old Labor Party attacking the agricultural industry in this country. Agriculture is the oldest industry in modern Australia. The sheep and the cattle industries have sustained modern Australia since its inception. But it isn't just the live export ban where the other side of the chamber, the Labor Party, attacks the agricultural industry. This isn't a one-off. It is the same old Labor attacking the true patriots of this country, small business, because they want to destroy the means of production. Whether it be the tree-clearing laws, the reef regulations, the fact that the agricultural department has to recoup costs—does the ABC have to recoup costs? No, of course not—inner-city industry. But if you're from the regions you've got to pay for everything in this country, don't you?

Let's talk about the tree-clearing laws. I want to talk about the tree-clearing laws in particular because in south-west Queensland there are some magnificent regional towns: Charleville, Quilpie and Cunnamulla—that's halfway between south-east and south-west Queensland. Those shires are dying. Those shires are dying because farms are being locked up because of carbon farming. Big organisations are coming in and buying these farms. The farmers are selling out and leaving town. The poor old mayors don't know what to do—Shaun Radnedge from Charleville, Stuart from Quilpie. Interestingly enough about 76 per cent of the carbon credits that have been generated to meet the Paris target emissions come from south-west Queensland. Do those farmers get any credit from the Left? They're the farmers who are doing the heavy lifting in saving the environment—that's of course if you believe the story these guys tell. What I want to know is why these guys constantly ridicule or reject the notion that this side of the chamber and this government are doing enough to meet its Paris commitments, because we are. We've actually reduced C02 emission from 2005 by 411 million tonnes. To reach Paris we only had to reduce by 395 million tonnes. Do you know where that reduction in carbon dioxide has come from? The agricultural industry. The true greenies, the real environmentalists, are of course our farmers.

How does state Labor repay that? They shut down the agricultural colleges. The Queensland state Labor government has shut down the regional pastoral colleges. If you really cared about the environment, wouldn't you want to teach our young and upcoming farmers best vegetation management practices? Wouldn't you be encouraging this stuff? No, no, no. They're just going to shut it down. Why is that? Because they don't want to see farmers succeed in agriculture.

It's not only tree-clearing laws. It's not only the closure of pastoral colleges. It's not only the closure of maternity wards; Queensland state Labor has shut over 30 regional maternity wards since they’ve come to power. They brought in poker machines. I will give one Labor politician a bit of credit here. Wayne Goss actually came out and said that was the biggest mistake he ever made. He actually said he regretted that. So I give him credit for admitting that was a big mistake. He has passed away now.

It goes on. As I mentioned earlier today, the reef regulations are designed to hit the cattle and cane industries. As I said earlier on, if you wanted to play a word association game: 'Cattle and cane. Name the state. It's Queensland.' What do Labor do? They're bringing in regulations that are going to force farmers who could be as far away as 500 kilometres upstream, and might have a few head of cattle, to do a vegetation management plan. If a farmer doesn't do that, they could be fined up to $200,000. Where is the farmer going to find the money to do a vegetation management plan and be able to sleep at night knowing that they're not going to be fined $200,000?

We have vegetation management laws in Queensland as well. They stop the farmers from pulling down mulga and all this sort of stuff. If they knew anything about mulga—you've got to pull the stuff down so that you open up the soil, so that when it rains the water falls into the ground and not over the top of it. Anyone who is from mulga country knows that if you actually pull down some mulga after it rains—where does the grass grow? Under the fallen mulga tree. What we've got now is fully grown mulga—because mulga is a quite fast-growing tree; it grows out after 25 years, so it's not actually sucking up any carbon at all. All it's doing is becoming one big fire hazard.

And let's not start on clearing national parks and forests. That's something I can speak about with a great deal of authority, because our family's property is right next door to a national park. Of course, what comes through from the national park all the time? Feral goats, feral pigs, feral dogs. Is the state government looking after our national parks? Of course not. But you don’t need to go to Western Queensland to see that. You've only got to go up to Mount Glorious in Brisbane, up the road from Samford, and you will see all of this lantana everywhere. You won't see lantana on private property, but you will see lantana all over the national parks. Why is that? Because Labor always talk the talk but never walk the walk.

When it comes to live animal exports, what do live exports do? Where do they go to? A lot of the time, this meat, these animals, will go to Third World countries to feed the people, because some of these Third World countries don't yet have refrigeration. If we could provide cheap power, they would get refrigeration, and I'm sure, over time, it will come. But do we think about Third World countries needing a source of protein? Who has the best source of protein in the world? Australia—the Australian agricultural industry.

As I think about the agricultural industry I can't help but think of Banjo Paterson. It's a part of our culture. It's a part of our heritage. Henry Lawson and 'The Loaded Dog'—I grew up on that sort of stuff. You ought to talk to the Queensland member for Callide, Colin Boyce; he's a great poet. He can go on and on talking bush poetry, and it's always about the cattle and sheep and our agricultural sector. You may scoff there, Senator Bilyk, but we know—

Senator Bilyk interjecting—

I'll take that interjection:

In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy

Gone a-droving 'down the Cooper' where the Western drovers go;

As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,

For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.

And that's the difference between today's inner-city people and the city people of a hundred years ago. They spoke about the bush in admiring terms. They didn't criticise our farmers; they held our farmers up as something to be admired. But not today, oh no! The elite attack the very hand that feeds them. Where do they think the meat on their plate comes from? Where do they think their vegetables come from? Where do the clothes on our backs come from? The agriculture sector.

Of course, it doesn't just stop there. They attack dams. They don't like dams. We haven't had any dams built in 30 years—bar one, Paradise, and we couldn't stop the Labor Party from pulling it down fast enough. They couldn't find any money to build Rookwood Weir but they could find $100 million to pull down Paradise Dam just like that, because, when it comes to tearing down the means of production, that's what the Labor Party is all about.

Debate adjourned.