Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Hansard source

I am the member for Barker, in south-east South Australia, and livestock is what we do. When I say 'what we do', it's also what my family does. I say that only for this reason: too often in this debate—and, I've got to say, this debate has been occurring in this nation for a number of years—farmers are cast as the animal rights abusers. Can I tell you this: nobody in this country as a cohort spends more money on animal welfare than the Australian farming sector. Just today my family has spent over $2,000 on drench alone. Why do we do that? We do that because we care about our animals. We do that because a healthy animal is a profitable animal. I don't want this debate to ever descend into attacks on Australian farmers.

The thing we've got to say about this debate—and this is the part that advocates, activists and others can never get away from—is: if Australia doesn't export these live animals to the world, who will? I'll tell you who will: they won't be nations that have an ESCAS. They won't be nations that care about livestock when they leave their borders. Effectively what you're doing, if you push the Australian industry to effectively ban live exports, which is the long-term trajectory of those opposite, or to end it immediately, which is no doubt the call from those who sit on the crossbench, is subjecting animals to greater levels of cruelty around the world. That's the reality.

Unlike the very strict requirements imposed upon Australian exporters of live animals, that void will be filled by jurisdictions who, quite frankly, don't give a toss. When I say 'give a toss', we don't just care about animals when they leave our jurisdiction or indeed when they're on water; we take action in country. Let's pause and think about this. We take this issue so seriously that we put resources in the jurisdiction of another country to ensure the citizenry of another country meets the standards we expect. No other jurisdiction in the world does that. If you force the Australian farming sector out of these markets, do you think these markets will naturally just evaporate? Do you think that demand which has been well established and built up will just expire? No; of course it won't. We will see other countries around the world meeting this demand. They'll only be too happy to.

A bit has been made about the Awassi Express. I haven't heard yet people talk about the media reporting relating to the Awassi, and the activities and behaviour as reported for Animals Australia. Direct payments, evidence of which has been provided, were being made directly to people on those voyages. I haven't heard those opposite address these issues. We had whistleblowers saying this was an act of sabotage by activists from within Australia, to destroy this industry.

In any event, what did our nation do as a response? Well, as we've always done, we ratcheted up the protections once again. We've ratcheted up the protections to the point that voyage mortality rates during Northern Hemisphere summers are currently at 0.2 per cent of one per cent. Presumably, those who bring this matter to the attention of the House would say: 'Well, that's unacceptable! I mean, 0.2 per cent of one per cent as a mortality rate is outrageous. That's why we have deal with this through a disallowance motion.' Let me tell you this, Mr Deputy Speaker, if we could achieve an on-farm mortality rate of 0.2 per cent of one per cent across our herds or flocks, we would be so excited. We can't, because mortality, unfortunately, is something that is real when you're a livestock producer. We say that if you've got live ones then unfortunately you've got dead ones.

So let's get real. If we end this trade out of Australia it will be taken over by another jurisdiction, and what you'll be doing is imposing greater levels of cruelty on animals across the globe, which will be transported from other jurisdictions to meet demand.

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