Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Department of Agriculture released a report this week on a complaint from June last year which showed that the company Livestock Shipping Services had breached the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance rules concerning the supply of sheep to Jordan. The House needs to bear in mind that Livestock Shipping Services are also being investigated concerning the ESCAS breaches in October and January. I believe that the Department of Agriculture should now issue a show cause notice to Livestock Shipping Services as to why their export licences should not be suspended or revoked.

One of the October complaints, like the June complaint, concerned the supply of sheep to Jordan, and was accompanied by appalling incidents of animal cruelty. During the Festival of Sacrifice, thousands of Australian sheep were sold outside approved supply chains in Jordan. The sheep were dragged from their pens, abused and shoved into car boots, and eventually had their throats slashed open on the streets and in private backyards.

Since its introduction, there have been no fewer than 25 formal complaints of cruelty in importing countries under the ESCAS, most of them instigated not by the industry, not by the ESCAS auditors, but by animal welfare groups. This suggests that exporters are still having to be dragged kicking and screaming towards good practice rather than embracing it.

Government claims that transitioning out of this cruel trade would be bad news for the Australian economy are baseless. First, most Australian farmers do not live export. In fact, just eight per cent of cattle and 11 per cent of sheep raised for food in Australia last year actually went into the live export trade. Second, live export represents a tiny fraction of Australia's overall exports, making up just 0.3 per cent of our total exports. Third, any political decision to end live export would of course be a transition over a number of years, allowing farmers time to adjust their businesses

Fourth, Australia's chilled meat trade is more economically valuable. Exports of chilled and frozen meat are worth six times more to Australia's economy already than live export. Fifth, the shift away from live export is already happening. Just last year boxed lamb exports to the Middle East jumped 50 per cent to become worth $60 million more than live sheep exports to that region.

Sixth, ending live export will create jobs in Australia. The vast majority of jobs currently supported by live export will still exist without it. In fact, more jobs will be created if we stop sending animals offshore. Western Australian abattoirs already have capacity to take all the sheep currently going into the live trade, a transition predicted to create an additional 2,000 jobs in Western Australia. Furthermore, a 10-year analysis of prices has proved that live export does not underpin the price of sheepmeat on the domestic market. The research determined that sheep prices are similar across all geographic locations in Australia regardless of exposure to the live trade.

Rather than apologising for government actions to protect animals, this government needs to take some action to protect animals. This government's apologetic indifference and inaction tells exporters that they have nothing to lose and everything to gain if they flout the rules. I believe the Australian public are sick of it. I believe that they are sick and tired of having to bear witness to animal welfare atrocities over and over again. The department's response to this report is a test which will show whether we have an effective regulator, whether there is any substance to the ESCAS rules, or whether it is simply lip-service, a rubber stamp that allows animal cruelty to go on out of sight, out of mind.