Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. In Australia, animals cannot be slaughtered unless they are stunned first because it is the humane thing to do. The government has resumed the live export trade but without imposing any requirement that the animals be stunned before they are killed. Why didn't the government insist on this as a condition of resumption of trade? How can the government even pretend to guarantee that animals will be killed in a humane way if this basic minimum requirement of stunning them first does not have to be met?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Melbourne for his question. In answer to the member's question, I would inform him of the follow­ing. Australian standards do not mandate the use of stunning. It is widely used but it is not compulsory in Australia, and international standards do specify ways of humanely slaughtering animals where stunning is not used. However, we have been clear that we think stunning is to be encouraged and preferred, and that is the approach we will take as we work on the resumption of the live animal trade. In terms of the mandated standards, we have gone for international standards. Those international standards do not mandate stunning; neither do Australian standards mandate stunning. So I understand that this is a debate in which people will have a variety of perspectives.

There are, of course, some who come to the animal welfare debate with more string­ent views than others about the slaughter of animals. There are some people who believe the killing of animals for food is wholly wrong. Now, of course, people are going to bring their various perspectives to this debate. But, in working out the conditions under which we would resume the trade, the relevant conditions that we have adopted are the international conditions. With the new export permits and control mechanisms, exporters will have a permit which enables them to export live animals, provided there is tracking, tracing, auditing and the standards are the international standards.