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

Australians have been shocked by the latest images of unimaginable suffering on Australia's live export ships. We have seen thousands of animals packed together condemned to suffer on an industrial scale. They are forced to live in mounting urine and faeces, they get trampled and it is so hot that the animals are literally cooked alive. Thousands die on every voyage in the worst conditions you could think of—and this is considered normal and acceptable! I defy anyone here to look at the images of those animals and say that this suffering is okay. It is not; it is unacceptable, and a big majority of Australians agree. It is beyond time that we end this cruelty. It is over five years since I first introduced a private member's bill into this place to ban live exports. But, because coalition and, in the past, Labor MPs have sided with a handful of vested interests, animals are still condemned to outrageous suffering. It is not good enough.

The Greens will keep fighting this. We are working with animal groups and the meatworkers' union to end live exports and deliver a win-win alternative for regional communities that ends this cruelty. My office is inundated with calls from constituents who want an end to this obscene cruelty. To everyone who has contacted me over the years: thank you for your action. I will keep fighting until the day when not one more animal is condemned to these voyages of misery.

Traditional owners and their supporters are gathered on Djap Wurrung country to protest the Victorian Labor government's planned destruction of over 250 sacred red gum trees near Ararat for a 12-kilometre road-widening project. They include an 800-year-old Djap Wurrung women's birthing tree which has stood for the birth of 56 generations. It is 2018 and it is not good enough for government to be proposing the destruction of sacred sites. The community won't stand for it. Nor will the community stand for the destruction of endangered species and habitats in these tracts of box gum woodlands just to widen this road. Protesters gathered outside the office of the Victorian Labor government's planning minister, Richard Wynne, last week to demand that the bulldozers be stopped. Greens candidate Kathleen Maltzahn addressed this protest, and I support their demand. Labor needs to go back to the drawing board and stop this cultural and environmental vandalism.

I would like to acknowledge in the parliament the success of the Earthworker Cooperative in the Latrobe Valley. Tackling climate change means that we have to get off coal and make the transition to renewable energy. But we can't leave it up to the big coal companies to decide when coal plants will close, as has happened in the Latrobe Valley and elsewhere. We need a plan for a transition that is just, that leaves no workers and no communities behind and that ensures that, the next time a coal-fired power station switches off, there are sustainable jobs for people to move into.

Earthworker is pointing one pathway forward. They start from the premise that social and environmental exploitation are intertwined and that the problems of climate change, job insecurity and growing inequality must be tackled simultaneously. Earthworker uses a cooperative model to build grassroots economic ownership and jobs. It is creating Australia's first worker owned factory making renewable energy appliances and components. Their co-op factory in Morwell is up and running and will soon be producing solar hot water systems. To everyone involved in Earthworker: congratulations. Government should be getting behind initiatives like this one as part of supporting communities through a just transition to renewables.

I would like to present in parliament a petition delivered to me by my constituents to tackle exploitation in global fashion supply chains. The petition is in the proper form and it has been approved by the Petitions Committee. The petition calls for the introduction of compulsory labelling on all fashion articles so that Australians know whether the clothes they are buying are produced ethically. As stated in the petition, 170 million children in the poorest countries are exploited in child labour, heavily within the fashion and textile industries. Nine out of 10 companies supplying clothes to Australian consumers fail to pay workers enough to meet their basic needs. The complexity and global nature of the fashion supply chain results in child labour conditions remaining invisible to both brands and consumers. This petition calls for compulsory and standardised labelling of all fashion articles sold in Australia, in terms of ethical and sustainable production, manufacture, finishing and associated child labour. Before I came to this place, I spent my working life standing up against companies who were failing to comply with the minimum conditions to stop the exploitation of outworkers. It's time we took this international so that every product sold in Australia is produced ethically.

The petition read as follows—

This Petition of Certain citizens of Australia

To the Honourable the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives draws to the attention of the House: 9 out of 10 companies supplying clothes to Australian consumers fail to pay workers enough to meet their basic needs. They also fail to monitor their supply chains. With 170 million children in the poorest countries in the world victim to Child Labour (as defined by the United Nations), the burden of this lays heavily within the fashion and textile industries. The complexity and global nature of the fashion supply chain results in child labour conditions remaining invisible to both brands and consumers. Australians have a right to know whether or not they are purchasing items that kill or harm people, animals and the planet. Compulsory, standardised labelling is required to clearly identify to consumers the level of harm associated with their purchase.

We ask that the house develop and implement industry-wide labelling of ALL fashion articles sold in this country. Non-Australian made fashion articles will not be allowed to be imported into Australia unless they have been rated and labelled in terms of associated ethical and sustainable production, manufacture, finishing and associated child labour. We therefore ask the House to develop a standardised rating system, an auditing and certification process and a recognisable consumer iconography. We ask the House to legislate the above, and present this as an international case study to the World Customs Organisation (WCO) for implementation around the globe.

from 129 citizens (Petition No. EN0377)

Petition received.