Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to use this grievance debate to put on the record some of the developments in the continuing battle for the future of the live export trade, which is critical to the Western Australian sheep industry and the livestock industry more generally. The bulk of the sheep that are exported out of Australia come from my electorate of O'Connor. The trade is worth around $180 million per annum, and about 40 per cent of the sheep turned off in Western Australia—that is, the lambs and those animals that are bred to be sold in Western Australia—find their way into the live export trade.

As many people in this place would be aware, last year there was some footage aired on the 60 Minutes program which brought the industry into disrepute. The government reacted very strongly with some new measures to ensure that those sorts of events didn't occur again. The industry was in a state of flux between May and November last year. Finally, in November, we saw the boats resume again. Since then, I can report to the House that we have had 11 voyages and 718,000 sheep exported for 1,800 mortalities. That is an extraordinary result. As a lifelong sheep farmer, I can tell you that you don't get those sorts of results running sheep in a paddock, so the trade has really turned things around and is operating very efficiently and effectively. Currently, we are in a three-month voluntary moratorium over the three hottest months of the Northern Hemisphere summer. That was an initiative which I supported and the industry brought forward, and we are looking forward to seeing the boats commence again on 1 September.

However, the footage that was provided to the 60 Minutes program was provided by a whistleblower who was a ship worker on the Awassi Express by the name of Faisal Ullah. On 17 January this year, very highly regarded journalists Sharri Markson and Annabel Hennessy published an article revealing that Mr Ullah, the whistleblower, had been paid a considerable amount of money. The article quotes $38,000. That's actually wrong. I have since obtained copies of bank statements which show the whistleblower was in fact paid slightly under A$175,000. The article also included a series of emails between Animals Australia and not Mr Ullah but some other whistleblowers or potential whistleblowers—ship workers that are in contact. I want to read out some of those emails.

On 2 May 2018, Animals Australia emailed the ship worker:

Hi, I just wanted to let you know, that such is the importance of the opportunity over the next few months, that our Board would provide another $1000 to your school if you can find someone willing to assist on any of the vessels doing Middle East runs.

So that is clearly offering money to the potential whistleblower. From Animals Australia on 4 June, 2018, to a ship worker:

… I know that I have sent you some of this before, but for ease of finding have put this all in one email to you.

Key instructions re filming—

There's a little bit of preamble, but then it's numbered.

1. Heat stress - this is sheep with their mouths open panting as per this video 2. Piles of dead sheep (the larger the better - but even a pile of three is worth filming) 3. Dead or dying animals in pens or alley ways 4. Sheep standing or lying in melted faeces (as per the video) 5. Over crowded pens

Those were the instructions from Animals Australia to this potential whistleblower. On 4 January, 2019, the ship worker responds to Animals Australia, saying:

What do you say that during loaded voyage XXXX switch off supply/exhaust fan for 1-2 hours so that the sheeps /cattles will be in more distress.

This is published in The West Australian, so I can't vouch for the veracity of this, but I assume the journalists and the editors at The West Australian did their due diligence on this.

This greatly concerned me because of the damage that this has done to my industry and my people in my electorate, and so I sought an investigation by the Australian Federal Police. The reason I sought an investigation by the Australian Federal Police was because they have stronger investigative powers, I believe, than the compliance unit of the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources. So I passed on the information that I had in my possession, which includes these bank statements here, which clearly show that $174,715 was paid into Mr Ullah's series of accounts. Most disturbingly the payments started on 22 June 2017, fully two months before the Awassi Express voyage took place. A Mr Jack F Anderson of the AMP bank Australia deposited $5,850 in the Bank of Baroda. This is the first of a series of payments that arrived in Mr Ullah's bank account from Australian based people.

I provided that information to the Australian Federal Police, and they determined that it was outside their jurisdiction. These events took place in the Middle East. They then handed this information on to the Department of Agriculture's investigative unit. Disappointingly, on Friday afternoon, 26 July, the department concluded their investigation into 'allegations that whistleblowers had offered to cut off ventilation and switch off exhaust fans to distress sheep on voyages in order to receive payment'. That is what the investigation was about. According to the department's statement, the department 'sought information from a wide range of sources … some of whom co-operated and others who chose not to'—surprisingly enough. The department concluded that they had 'not found any evidence to suggest breaches of Commonwealth laws had been committed in relation to alleged payments', and 'the investigation did not uncover any evidence to suggest the footage obtained in 2017 by the crew members was contrived or that ventilation fans were turned off'. Those are the findings of the investigation.

But I have some questions which I will be putting to the Department of Agriculture investigative unit. Firstly, what powers do the department's investigators have to compel witness statements? They clearly say that some people chose not to cooperate. One assumes that people with vital information weren't compelled to provide that information. Did the department verify whether the bank statements that I provided to the AFP are in fact legitimate? I don't know. I have been provided with them and they look legitimate. I would have thought that that was fairly germane to the investigation. Did the department speak to the generous benefactors who deposited the money into Mr Ullah's account to establish why they were randomly dropping money into this fellow's account? And did the department review the emails from Animals Australia to verify their authenticity?

These are the questions that I will be putting to the department. In relation to not finding any criminality, let me just say that my industry, the industry that underpins the livestock industry in Western Australia and that supports thousands of farmers across our state, was tried in the court of public opinion. I believe that my farmers and the public of Australia are owed the facts of this matter. If $175,000 was paid to a whistleblower to provide that footage, I think that not only my farmers but the Australian public have a right to know. I will pursue this to the bitter end to find out whether that was in fact the case.