Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Labor government introduced the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance Scheme, ESCAS, in response to the appalling cruelty to Australian cattle in Indonesia uncovered in 2011. The system attempted to safeguard the welfare of our livestock in foreign markets. Unfortunately, the continued implementation of ESCAS by the coalition government has fundamentally failed. The extent of this failure has been thoroughly and perceptively analysed in a beautifully written and compelling new book by Bidda Jones and Julian Davies, Backlash: Australia's Conflict of Values over Live Exports. Not only has Backlash effectively reconstructed the history of the live export trade, its social and political ramifications and its implications for policy formation and regulation in this country; it documents ongoing—indeed increasing—serious welfare issues for our animals sent overseas for slaughter.

In contrast with this careful analysis, on 2 March Senator Chris Back spoke in the Senate and attempted to suggest that the welfare crisis of 2011 and the brief suspension of the trade was orchestrated as a convenient distraction from other difficult political issues. The absurdity of such a construction reveals the extent to which proponents of live exports are willing to muddy the real issues: the ongoing cruel treatment of our exported livestock and the serious risk to our reputation as a high-welfare quality meat exporter.

The failure of ESCAS is due to pressure from the live export industry, encouraged by uncritical support from this government. The difficulty of implementing a regulatory system in foreign jurisdictions has been compounded by an aggressive expansion of the trade into new, unprepared markets. Handling and slaughter practices frequently remain inhumane, and leakage from the supply chain is endemic in these countries. Under this government we have seen live export companies accumulate multiple critical or major breaches of ESCAS without prosecution or a single cancellation of an export licence.

Slaughter standards may have improved in Indonesia since 2011, but the expansion of the live trade in Southeast Asia has brought new problems. In Vietnam, where Australian cattle have been killed using sledgehammers, the department has already made 13 findings of noncompliance, with three more cases still under investigation. In the Middle East, where long haul voyages still cramp animals in intolerable conditions, supply chains continue to repeatedly fail.

The latest quarterly report on ESCAS from the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources includes incidents in Gaza of 'cattle being forcibly dragged or made to jump off trucks, slaughter without the use of appropriate restraint facilities, the use of multiple cuts and stabbing or sawing motions, and animals still conscious several minutes after the first cut was made'.

Having lived and worked in Gaza, I understand only too well how difficult it would be for animal welfare standards to be consistently achieved for livestock there. The department itself has noted that ESCAS standards are unlikely to be maintained. Live export companies seem deaf to this message, with Otway Livestock Exports' Alan Schmidt seeking to reopen the trade, claiming 'some of the most impoverished people in the world live in Gaza and they are in desperate need of correct nutrition'. The people of Gaza indeed need our help, but let me be clear: those who profit from the live export trade are not motivated by compassion for the poor. Sending Australian cattle to an inevitably cruel death is not the solution to the Gaza issue.

With the cataloguing of numerous incidents of cruelty and the long delay in their being reported, it is clear that real information is dependent entirely on third parties, including video footage from Animals Australia. All of these factors can only lead to the conclusion that the government does not want to know the reality of the fate of our exported animals. It does not want to know because it is hostage to furthering the trade.

In 2007 New Zealand abandoned the trade for slaughter as not being worth the scandal. World markets are increasingly demanding high-quality meat slaughtered with the highest standards. Australia is well positioned to take advantage of this, if only we have the foresight and integrity to act. With the meat trade seven times more important to our balance of payments than live exports, the future for this industry is already clear. Our meat industry provides 200,000 Australian jobs, compared to only 10,000 in the live trade industry. Most of these are transferable. At present, destructive competition for livestock is damaging the meat processing industry, resulting recently in the loss of 50 jobs at Teys meatworks in Rockhampton. At JBS's Townsville plant, 580 workers have had no work this year due to this same competition. Just last week, 17,000 Angus steers left Portland for a 30-day journey to Russia—17,000 animals that should have been slaughtered here in Australia, bringing work and generating valuable income in Australia.

This government continues to ignore the damage caused by the animal welfare failings of live trade to Australia's international reputation. A planned transition away from live trade, with support for those producers who are dependent on it, makes indisputable sense both ethically and economically.