Barry Haase (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to take the opportunity in this grievance debate to summarise the rather tragic events of the last five weeks. I outline them for the benefit of those in the House and of those who might be listening or who read Hansard. We are well aware that the dreadful—shocking, may I say—footage on the ABC Four Corners program of the slaughter of Australian and other stock in Indonesia was most upsetting. I will summarise the chain of events.

Early in 2011, an Australian, a declared vegan who had publicly declared a personal vendetta against the export of live animals from Australia, went to Indonesia. Having ingratiated herself with various abattoir workers, she was able to capture footage in 11, out of 700-odd, Indonesian abattoirs that indicated practices totally unacceptable to anyone who has ever dealt with livestock, be it the breeding, transportation or slaughter of livestock. From the outset, I say that I, and people almost unanimously across the industry, can declare that we have no truck with any practices that involve cruelty. Members will realise, however, that what they get on a plate as a steak started out as a living thing. It was bred, cared for, nurtured and then slaughtered. Quite frankly, without the slaughter part of that process you do not get to eat the steak. That, sadly, comes as a great surprise to many city-dwelling viewers. Once upon a time, our population was associated with rural Australia through relations. It was typical for children to spend school holidays in some part of the year back in rural Australia. They understood the breeding, raising, killing and eating of livestock as part of the normal routine of being omnivorous.

That person, having captured this footage, then contracted with the ABC to have the program put together and aired on Four Corners. Months went by before this 'urgent' situation was aired to the Australian people. Almost overnight, certainly within 24 hours, the Labor Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator Ludwig, had declared that trade with the offending abattoirs would be stopped. That was a totally reasonable reaction to the circumstances, given a total view of the situation.

Of course, there was additional reaction. Some quarter of a million Australians signed an online petition, and those quarter of a million signatures were very weighty when it came to the Prime Minister's decision to weigh in and put a total halt to this trade. There was no negotiation, no coordination and no gathering of information. There was a total halt—instantly. Nothing less would be acceptable. That had the immediate effect of holding up protocoled cattle in yards. There was no arrangement for feed or water and boats in port were unable to load. There was despair among thousands of employees in industry across Northern Australia which very quickly migrated to southern Australia as well, and the hold-up in the north was very quickly impacting on feedlots and exporters in the south.

The next outcome of this absolute international slur on Indonesia, a Muslim nation, for their practices was murmurings in Indonesia that this would impact on other trade relationships. Senator Ludwig as a result went to Indonesia to make the situation better, and we all know very well that that made the situation even worse. It was like throwing petrol on a fire trying to put it out. There was a total collapse of the relationship. The Indonesians started threatening that they may not issue import licences for Australian cattle into the future and that they would look to other international markets to secure the stock they required for their growing Indonesian industry. And what an industry it is for Australia—the total value of our live cattle export is some $226 million. The industry in 2010 was worth some $1.012 billion. It is a very substantial part of the Australian agricultural economy. Western Australia has a unique freight advantage. Broome is closer to Jakarta that it is to Perth, and the abattoirs that may be able to handle cattle are south of Perth. So cattle can either go on a 2,122 kilometre boat journey with a constant supply of food and water in controlled temperatures or they can spend up to four days on trucks being stopped every 24 hours for 12 hours on feed and water. Anyone who has any sense of reason would say that it is far more humane to put cattle onto a boat journey than to put them on stock trucks and shift them by road.

There are 82 Indigenous cattle properties in northern Australia, 54 in the Territory, 22 in the Kimberley and six in Far North Queensland. They support 700 real jobs for Indigenous people. It is stated by the ILC that those 700 jobs support up to 17,000 people. That is an amazing figure, but, if you consider Indigenous communities, it is very likely to be the case. It is remarkable that on 15 November 2008 the Hon. Jenny Macklin MP stated, amongst other things:

The government is committed to halving the employment gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a decade by creating job opportunities and giving Indigenous people the skills and training they need to get and keep a job.

As a result of that, some 530 certificate-level training places and employment for up to 400 Indigenous graduates in the pastoral industry were created. What of those jobs and opportunities today? They amount to absolutely nothing. On top of that we have stock currently on the way to Indonesia with Wellard boats from South America; there are still pockets of foot and mouth in Brazil; and the likelihood of landing that disease in Indonesia is high and the proximity of Indonesia to the Kimberley coast is very close. By any approach we increase the threat of foot and mouth disease to Australia.

If you look to the outcome of this knee-jerk reaction on the industry—and potentially on Australian agriculture—on the wellbeing of Indonesians and on the whole wellbeing of Australia, you can see nothing that indicates anything but absolute failure. Until such time as the Prime Minister realises this, takes some good advice and gets her Minister for Foreign Affairs to Indonesia to try and smooth this situation over with an apology and an explanation for the knee-jerk reaction, this industry and therefore the agricultural sector of the Australian economy are at serious risk. Until such time as all Australians understand the reality of the raising of animals for food and the necessity that the animals are slaughtered as part of that process, this parliament will be dictated to by attitudes that are unacceptable. (Time expired)