Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I guess I can speak with some authority—as opposed to the person opposite—when it comes to the live sheep export industry, and particularly the animal husbandry export industry, having been a farmer all my life. I've still got a commercial sheep farm and I know something about this. But I think it does hark back—it's interesting—that the same old Labor—

An opposition member: How many sheep have you live exported?

I have live exported, yes.

An opposition member: You've live exported out of Victoria?

Yes, out of Victoria.

An opposition member interjecting—

Just bear with me, bear with me. Same old Labor, same old Labor: ban it, shut it down or tax it. Let's have a little bit of a history lesson, shall we. In 1974 under Whitlam, the federal Labor government paid out a lot of money to shoot cattle. Did you know that? People don't realise that. They don't know their history. They dug pits in Victoria and shot cattle because they couldn't open up exports.

An opposition member interjecting—

Who was the Prime Minister? Gough Whitlam. In 1972, under Keating, when I was 17 years old, we could not shift old wethers. I still remember. As a 17-year-old, I had to shoot sheep. My father said to me, 'Isn't there someone who would take these?' And that was when we started to develop the live export industry, out of Victoria, to move sheep out of Victoria.

An opposition member: It could have been prevented by you.

And I've got to say that, in 2012, under Julia Gillard, once again, there was banning of live exports.

An opposition member: We've got a proud history of banning live exports.

Whitlam, Keating and Gillard—the same old Labor will shut your industry down. Of the 1.7 million sheep exported last year in live sheep exports, 99.29 per cent were delivered in good health. Think about that for a moment. That's less than one per cent. At the moment, if you put 1.7 million sheep in a paddock, you will have greater fatality in than you will have on a boat. And I guess this is the interesting part: people who are captured by a television program and an email campaign, as opposed to people who have been around the sheep industry, are easily swayed.

The live export industry remains a very important part of our animal export industry. And you talk about premium product. I don't mean to ruin your paradigm but we're not live exporting prime lamb. We are live exporting old wethers, who have had a wonderful life producing wool around the farm, and they're not sheep you and I would want to eat. They are certainly sheep that will hit the export market and will be very welcome over there.

There were 10,000 rural Australian jobs dependent upon this $1.4 billion in the trade in 2016-17. These sheep also play a part in a very environmental-focused program within Western Australia, particularly in the Western Australian grain industry, where they are cutting down our glyphosate consumption because of their grazing habits. A lot of the farmers will use those, then value-add them and live export them.

It is paramount that we open many opportunities for our sheepmeat industry. Certainly, we need to have high-value cuts. Our open skies policy has really afforded that. If you have a look at an abattoir in Victoria, the hearts and the livers will be exported into the UAE within 24 hours of slaughter. What we don't have is that capacity in Western Australia yet, and if we want to move forward to opening up market opportunities, it's not just a matter of opening abattoirs; it's also a matter of having the air freight to value-add those animals.

If they want to shut down the live export industry in Western Australia, here is the glaring truth that no-one wants to talk about in the Labor Party. Those sheep will probably come across the Nullarbor on trucks—

Mr Brian Mitchell interjecting—

The member opposite might not want to hear this truth, but sometimes the truth needs to be told. If he remembers the statistic I gave of 1.7 million sheep and 99.29 per cent walking off the truck, I can guarantee that if they come across the Nullarbor their fatalities will be higher than if they go by boat to the marketplace.

This is the point I'm making: if we want to have a government that's going to stand by the Australian agricultural industry, people have to vote for us. We can remember 1974 and the 40,000 cattle getting shot, paid for by Whitlam. In 1992, under Keating, sheep were shot everywhere. In 2012, under Julia Gillard, there was the ban on cattle. Every time Labor is in power, we see lack of markets, we see sheep getting destroyed and we see cattle getting destroyed. It's the same old Labor: they want to shut it down, they want to ban it and they want to tax it.

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