Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Later this month the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment will complete a regulatory review into live sheep exports, deciding whether to reduce the number of days that live export ships are prohibited from travelling to certain locations during the blistering Northern Hemisphere summer. Disappointingly, draft recommendations from the review reduce the prohibition period on summer sailings, which would be an astounding move after the terrible ministerial decision to grant an exemption for the Al Kuwait to sail in 2020. Remember, tens of thousands of Australian sheep suffered terribly on that voyage. It was animal cruelty on steroids.

At the very least, we should not export live sheep to the Middle East and South Asia during their scorching conditions between May and November. More to the point, this vile trade should be banned outright. That's why I've introduced bills to end the live export trade many times, and each time my office is flooded with calls from across the country from people who agree. There is simply no doubt that the live export trade lacks community support, not least because it's been proven time and time again that the industry is systemically cruel and not in Australia's economic best interests. Hence this latest, cynical move to reduce the summer sailing ban is unquestionably cruel and unnecessary, much like the live export trade itself.