Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

It's an outlier—it's an exceptional event. What a ridiculous thing to do! We on this side of the House want evidence based policy. We want to rely on the science in this case. McCarthy rejected the science, the science shared with us so competently by the Australian Veterinary Association. We want evidence based policy. We don't want a government which sends the signal to researchers that it's all right to change the data to get the outcome you're looking for. That's exactly what we don't want.

I want to inform the House that when we get to the in-detail stages of the debate on this bill, I'll be moving another amendment—a very serious amendment, which I want others opposite to give very genuine consideration to. I've chosen not to do it by surprise in the House—I could have snuck one in during the in-detail debate—but I wanted to give members opposite the time to sleep on it. That amendment, which I will move before the third reading vote, will in effect institute the Sussan Ley bill, or the bill proposed by the member for Farrer. It will put a stop to the summer trade at the first immediate opportunity, and it will phase out the live sheep trade over a five-year period. I'll put that tomorrow, assuming the government allows us to get to the in-detail stage of this debate now, and I do ask members tonight to have a think about that.

The member for Farrer's bill is a perfectly reasonable one. Again, it takes immediate action on the science. The science is in on that northern summer trade. As I have argued, it gives our sheepmeat producers and others plenty of time, with government support and strategic guidance, to transition to something better. I want to particularly make an appeal to those people on the other side who have already publicly expressed their very deep concern about that summer trade in particular, and expressed the view that this is a broken model and there is no long-term future for this sector.

So I'll put that amendment tomorrow. Again, I want to guarantee members they'll have the opportunity tomorrow to study the bill drafted by the parliamentary draftsmen, or I'm happy to give it to them tonight. In fact, Mr Deputy Speaker Georganas, I'm happy to table the amendment now, which I have with me, so that members do have access to the amendment tonight and can reassure themselves that it is an exact replica of what the member for Farrer has proposed in her private member's bill. I'm sure the minister will allow me to table that document.

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