Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I table a document relating to an order for the production of documents concerning animal welfare.

Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the minister of agriculture's letter about OPD No. 1034, which was a Senate order to release animal welfare incidents reports in export registered abattoirs.

I requested these documents after a distressing story was published in the Age detailing horrific animal cruelty at abattoirs. Many really disturbing incidents of animal cruelty were described. It was reported that vets employed by the federal agriculture department and stationed at export abattoirs spoke privately of feeling pressure from meat processors when raising animal welfare concerns.

My request to table these reports was agreed to by the Senate on 9 February this year. But on 17 February, when the documents were due, Senator Bridget McKenzie told us that they were unable to comply and intended to respond at the earliest possible opportunity. On 29 March these excuses were echoed again by the Morrison government. Well—surprise, surprise—that opportunity never came. Days became weeks, weeks became months, until very conveniently for the coalition the election arrived. It was, frankly, disgraceful to have run down the clock before an election to avoid producing documents that the Senate had ordered them to produce. I am thankful that the Morrison government is no longer, but we still live with the consequences of their inaction. We are still waiting for those documents.

I do appreciate that the new minister for agriculture, Senator Watt, has now responded to my request for the OPD and welcome his assurance that he will table the documents, within this parliamentary sitting fortnight, with optimism. If the new government is serious about transparency they now have an opportunity to act like it. Every day that goes by without answers is another day that animals continue to suffer.

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

ator O'SULLIVAN (—) (): I would like to take note as well. Coming from Western Australia I fully appreciate and understand the significance of the live sheep export industry. The live sheep export industry is an important contributor to Australian agriculture. It's a vital source of revenue and jobs for our rural and regional economies, particularly for my home state of Western Australia.

The livestock export industry in general contributes $1.7 billion to Australia's national economy every year. The live sheep export trade alone is worth around $250 million, with about 85 per cent of that income generated in Western Australia alone.

Since 2018 the industry and its regulatory framework has undergone significant change. This commitment by industry demonstrates the industry's strong desire to ensure a sustainable industry for future generations. The industry has not sought to ignore the responsibilities that it has to animal welfare. Rather, changes have delivered an improved animal welfare performance.

Rather than seek to improve and refine the regulatory welfare of the trade, there are many here in this place who would rather see a ban on the live sheep export trade altogether. Banning live-sheep exports is reactionary and would only result in substantial job losses throughout the industry. It would decimate an industry that, like mining and other industries, has underwritten the success of the Australian narrative since Federation. Those who seek to ban live-sheep export do not care about the generations of families who have contributed to this country with their hard work and sacrifice. Continuing to strengthen the oversight of the industry is a prudent path forward that will ensure a successful and sustainable future for it.

Since 1985, there have been at least 10 government and parliamentary reviews that have examined the live-export system and its associated animal welfare issues. These reviews have led to significant regulatory reform of the animal welfare standards by which exporters must abide and have increased the level of oversight of the export process. We have seen evidence that a sensible approach does work. Every six months the minister for agriculture must table in parliament a report from the department that includes details of the livestock mortalities of every sea voyage.

We all saw on television and on social media a few years ago those appalling images of cruelty and situations where animals were not treated humanely. Notwithstanding the fact that some of what we saw was confected by activists who were intent on portraying the industry and those voyages in a certain very negative way, we have seen the industry take enormous steps, significant steps, to improve conditions. These improvements have been led chiefly by the producers and the transporters themselves. The sheep mortality rate decreased from 14,000, or 0.8 per cent, in 2016 to just over 1,300, or 0.21 per cent, in 2021. That is a significant reduction. In view of the fact that more than 660,000 sheep were transported last year, this diminishing mortality rate serves only to highlight the industry's attitude towards better animal welfare. We know that producers, in particular, value the dignity of every single one of the animals they have in their care. We have seen a commitment by this industry to ensure that these animals are treated humanely on a journey. There are restrictions on the time of year that the ships can travel. Measures have been put in place so that veterinary officials are on board to ensure that safeguards are in place to ensure that animals are treated as humanely as possible.

The COVID pandemic has served to underscore how food security has become a major issue for many of our livestock export destinations. Many countries simply cannot produce the food to support their populations, and they need security of supply. So Australia, and Western Australia in particular—Senator Sterle knows this very well, having worked in the transport industry—plays a critical role in ensuring that these markets are able to be met with good produce and in ensuring the supply of this to the countries that need it. If Australia, and Western Australia, is not supplying, then those suppliers are going to come from other countries that may not have the level of integrity that our industry in Australia has taken up. These countries will not be able to meet their needs internally and they will seek it elsewhere. We can't be assured of the integrity and safety that we in this country want to ensure.

Only live export can meet the protein needs of countries where refrigeration is not always available. Phasing out the live-sheep trade will have wider trade implications for the exchange of products and services between Australia and the Middle East. The impact here is much greater and is beyond just the trade of sheep. It can impact many other sections of our trade relationships with many countries, particularly in the Middle East.

Above all, it will have a real impact on families and jobs and people that derive their livelihoods from these farms, from these products and from these services. We would not want to see that, particularly in my home state, sacrificed on the altar of ideology by those that are just determined to see this trade wiped out. We're not going to see that happen. We will not see that happen. We can't allow that to happen, because it would be a devastation to the producers, to the families that rely on them and to everyone that's involved in this industry and has done absolutely everything that they can to support this industry and see the improvements that have remarkably been put in place. To see that reduction of mortality down to 0.21 per cent is a remarkable achievement that everyone in that industry must be really proud of.

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak to the benefits of our nation's world-class animal welfare standards. Time after time, we hear the Greens party come in either to this place or Senate estimates and denigrate our primary producers, livestock transport operators, our trading systems and our exporters and say they somehow should be ashamed of their hard work and should be somehow ashamed of having the best animal welfare standards in the world. They only speak to people in capital cities, because if you live out in rural and regional Australia—if you live out in rural and regional WA—you know how hard these men and women work to make sure their livestock is safe and to make sure their livestock is well-treated. You know exporters themselves and know how many changes have been made as a result of all sides of politics taking the treatment of animals seriously.

We export live animals to over 130 countries around the world. It underpins local and regional economies. In particular, the live sheep trade in WA employs absolutely thousands of people and contributes significantly to regional economies. I was quite buoyed by Premier McGowan's commentary when the now agriculture minister Murray Watt of the Labor Party was all cock-a-hoop that he was going to shut down the live trade. Thankfully, the Premier in that state said, 'No, you're not, bozo.' Murray wouldn't know—

Senator Sterle, it's great to have you in the chamber, but that is amateur hour at best—Murray Watt standing up and proudly announcing that the city-centric Labor Party, supported by the Greens party, was seeking to shut down this industry vital to these regional economies.

As the former contributor let the chamber know, this is actually about fulfilling a cultural need in certain countries. It's about recognising that certain countries don't enjoy the level of development that we do. They don't have refrigerated truck networks. They don't have the types of things that we take for granted, and this is meeting a need. If we can actually export safely and humanely, then that's absolutely what we should be doing. But, once again, we have the Greens in here seeking to make farmers ashamed of what they do and ashamed that they're involved in a world-class livestock industry.

Australia provides a variety of livestock classes and breeds. When you look at it, it's not just sheep; it's cattle, buffalo, sheep and goats for feeder, slaughter, breeding and dairy purposes. They are the gamut of livestock that we export from this country. It's not just sheep. You often hear the argument: 'Why don't we just set up all these abattoirs and slaughter them here? We can sell these 130 countries and millions of customers chilled beef, chilled goat and chilled buffalo.' They don't have refrigerators. Their cultural practices are a little different to ours. They prefer to slaughter their own animals, according to their own local customs. Australia gives them that option in their home country, humanely, because if it isn't a live animal from Australia, with our world-class animal welfare protections in place, it is from somewhere else. And I can tell you, if you want to be proud of our country it's our animal welfare policies that you should be proud of.

In terms of slaughter methods used overseas, we've got almost 600 abattoirs that have been approved to slaughter Australian livestock under the ESCAS system. The exact numbers are held by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, as obviously they regulate the trade. In the case of Indonesia, our most important market, pre-slaughter stunning of cattle has grown enormously, from under 10 per cent five years ago to around 95 per cent today. That just shows that each and every day, each and every year, we are getting better and better at ensuring that world-class systems are in place, not just on ship but also when Australian livestock reach the offshore market, so we can make sure that they are slaughtered in a humane way.

In terms of the OPD before us today, I note that the Albanese government says it's committed to integrity and transparency and that the current agriculture minister takes the orders made by the Senate seriously and seeks to provide the requested information at its earliest opportunity. Due to the broad scope of the order, 1,304 initial searches have returned a high volume of documents, so we all look forward to the minister actually being as transparent and as accountable as we seek him to be. The Senate is actually a very important mechanism in our democracy to ensure transparency of the executive government.

In terms of Mr McGowan, as David Littleproud, the shadow agriculture minister, said, if we shut this trade down we're simply exporting animal welfare standards to other countries that don't have our standard, such as Ethiopia and Sudan. We've got a responsibility and an opportunity to get this right.

Some of those opposite say that this is a diminishing market, that we can have all these local jobs and ship off the chilled product, not recognising that the markets actually don't want chilled product—we can already do that. The other argument is that it's a diminishing market and that as these overseas places get more affluent and more developed they won't seek this type of product. That's just not true. I hate to put facts on the table when emotion seems to be the only game in town, but it was worth $97 million last year, $113 million this year—right now—and $130 million-plus in the coming years. So this is a growing market—a growing market for our primary producers and a growing market for our livestock transporters and the regional service industries that support them—right across the country, not just in regional WA.

So I would call on the Australian Greens and the Australian Labor Party—but particularly the Australian Greens—to support Australian farmers, because this is a global market. We export 80 per cent of what we grow, and we need to be proud of how we grow product in this country. We should be proud not just of growing our vegetable crops, our horticulture products, our grains but also of how we raise cattle, sheep, goats and all of our livestock products, instead of continually talking these people down, as if they need to go to bed ashamed of what they do every night. Young people in the cities are crying because they believe the lie that Australian livestock are somehow being treated inhumanely by Australian farmers, or as a result of Australian farmers running their business. It is a lie that is perpetuated by those who seek to shut down our livestock industry and to make sure we don't produce meat in this country.

The sad fact of the reality, if they ever reach the fruition of that outcome, is that some other country that doesn't treat their livestock as humanely as we do will just fill the gap. That's the reality. I support the industry. I look forward to the minister actually providing the documents in the efforts of transparency and accountability, and I look forward to hearing from the Greens on how they want to shut our fabulous industry down. We won't stop standing up for it.

Question agreed to.