Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The live export industry has to realise that it is in its best interests for the industry to lift its game and to ensure that ESCAS is not only properly enforced but also is strengthened. I was amazed by the comments by the member for Durack that in fact in her view and in the view of the government we should be reducing the strength of that supply chain assurance. The growers and all of those in the export chain cannot stick their heads in the sand just because they have a minister who is prepared to ignore the problem because the community will not stay quiet.

Time and time again we continue to see major breaches in ESCAS. In the past months it has gone beyond leakage of animals from the approved supply chain to cruelty exposed within an ESCAS approved abattoir. This is eroding community confidence in the trade. Let us get these numbers right. An Essential Media poll in 2013 found that one quarter of the country does not support live export at all. Importantly, the same poll found that 50 per cent of people were prepared to support the practice if appropriate safeguards were in place to guarantee that Australian animals are treated humanely both here and overseas.

This morning I have seen a more recent UMR research poll which showed that 59 per cent of respondents disapproved of live exports, including interestingly 53 per cent in Western Australia. It is in this context that the reality of this situation has to be understood. Every time footage emerges of our cattle being treated cruelly in an overseas abattoir, the community loses faith in the safeguards we have put in place to protect these animals.

The minister has claimed that ESCAS is working and that 99 per cent of exported animals are treated humanely but there is absolutely no transparency around this claim. The only time the public ever hears of action being taken against breaches in the supply chain is after the barbaric treatment has been exposed by animal welfare groups. Exporters have admitted that thousands of animals are outside the supply chains in Vietnam. When footage of sledgehammering emerged in April, the minister said about the matters that the incidents had been under investigation for the previous two months but the treatment continued on a regular basis. Then we saw—and it was extraordinary—when the latest information came out about the mistreatment in an accredited Israeli abattoir, the minister said that it is a problem relating to stunning; whereas stunning is not part of the practice of kosher slaughter, and so of course was not in play in the Israeli abattoir.

We can not continue to have these regulations in place and claim that the industry is doing just fine. We need to ensure that these regulations are properly enforced. The auditing process has been conducted by the exporter, and clearly is unsustainable and literally incredible. That is why we need to strengthen the system. That is why we need an independent inspector-general of animal welfare and live exports to ensure that we do have some independence in the auditing, and that we have this information brought before the parliament and the public on a regular basis.

I also want to say that it should be understood that we have got to make sure that we have got resilience in our industry, and I am particularly concerned about northern Australia. We are very dependent on live exports to Indonesia. The Indonesians have indicated that they want to move out of live exports, they want to be self-sufficient. We have got alternatives. Last week, I was with Yeeda pastoral company and saw that their new abattoir is almost complete. When it is opened in October they will soon be able to process 70,000 head of northern cattle per year. They have already signed a contract with Burger King in the USA for half the meat they are processing in that facility. The abattoir will employ 80 people from the day it is open; creating enormous opportunities for the local community, including the local Indigenous community. So we have got the capacity to have alternatives to live export, but if those people in the live export industry want this industry to continue they have an obligation to enforce— (Time expired)

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