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

Those Liberal and National Party MPs who are now calling on the government to resume live cattle exports to Indonesia run a serious risk of returning us to the barbaric and unacceptable practices which were revealed by the ABC program Four Corners. Their demands call into question their commitment to animal welfare. They show a contempt for the views of the Australian people, who do not want to see live cattle exports resumed any time soon, and they do the meat industry a disservice. Rather than putting pressure on the government to resume live exports, they should be showing some leadership and steering the industry away from the live export industry and towards the meat processing industry here in Australia.

We have been putting too many eggs in the live export basket and we need to develop the domestic industry instead. Rural MPs should be telling farmers and producers, who we are told were horrified by the Four Corners revelations, that the jig is up on live exports and it is time to move to the domestic industry. The government does not need to yield to opposition pressure to resume this trade any time soon. To see the opposition running interference on the government's serious endeavours to solve this problem makes you wonder whether the Liberal and National parties are genuinely committed to animal welfare at all. The Australian people do not want the suspension to be lifted. If we lift the suspension, I fear that the pressure which is now on the industry to lift its game will fade away. I believe the only proper basis for live cattle exports to Indonesia or elsewhere is stunning—no stun, no deal—tracking, so we know what happens to cattle that leave our shores, and monitoring. I think the industry and the Indonesian authorities should think seriously about funding someone from the RSPCA or the World Society for the Protection of Animals to be present at accredited abattoirs with a video camera wherever these abattoirs are operating. That kind of scrutiny could restore public confidence in an industry whose credibility has taken a monumental hit.

I am really disappointed that the Liberal Party are opposing the suspension. When there were similar revelations of cruelty to cattle being exported to Egypt in 2006, the Howard government acted promptly to suspend the trade. It was not resumed for three years. The sky did not fall in. Animal welfare standards were improved. So I am really disappointed. They have gone backwards in their commitment to animal welfare since they went into opposition.

There was a media report in the Age this week that the caucus had 'backed down' on the issue of live cattle exports to Indonesia. This was a strange and unfair charac­terisation of the strong and united stand taken by the parliamentary Labor Party, which has delivered a really significant breakthrough. The media report has led to some genuine members of the public being concerned about our actions, so let me make the record very clear. At the caucus meeting at which the member for Page and I gave notice of motion, the government moved to suspend exports to the dozen abattoirs which had been featured in the Four Corners TV program footage. After that meeting, we made it clear that we would persist with our motion because we were concerned that there were other abattoirs among the over 100 in Indonesia which could be engaged in similar practices, and because we saw ships still going off to Indonesia and we could not guarantee the Australian people that those barbaric practices were not continuing. The Australian people did not want business as usual; they wanted action. Then the government acted to suspend the trade.

This was a game-changing announcement, and the suspension is doing a power of good. We are now seeing a flurry of activity on the part of the Indonesian government and the industry. The consequences of the suspension will be a lifting in standards and an end to the cruel practices which have gone on. There should also be a move in the direction of processing meat in Australia. This is no backdown; this is a breakthrough. I am very proud of the way in which many members of the parliamentary Labor Party have stood up to be counted for decency in our treatment of animals.

Now we are hearing complaints about the economic impact of suspending this trade. I do not believe these complaints to be well founded. Alternatives are available. But in any event, some things are more important than money. We should not seek to make a profit on the back of the torture, misery and suffering of powerless animals. When William Wilberforce introduced his anti-slavery bill to the British parliament in 1791, people complained that it would annihilate a trade that employed over 5,000 sailors. That argument was rejected 200 years ago and we should reject it again today. (Time expired)