Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to update the House on the status of live animal exports to Israel since the 7 October Hamas invasion and on how Australia continues to deliver an important source of food security to the Middle East. According to LiveCorp, the value of Australia's live sheep export trade to the Middle East is $143 million, and it supports around 3,500 regional jobs, mostly in my electorate of O'Connor.

In 2023, live sheep exports to Israel were up fourfold on the previous year, and WA live exporters continued to successfully ship consignments to Israel and the broader Middle East. Unfortunately, the voyage of the MV Bahijah has proved an exception, and there must be serious questions asked of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry as to why this shipment was approved in the first place. While Israeli importer Bassem Dabbah has imported into Israel in the past, it appears nonsensical that the safety of an Israeli consignment via the Red Sea was not questioned by DAFF.

I state for the record that no-one disputes that the rerouting of the Bahijah away from the threat of Houthi rebel attack near the Red Sea was the safest option to protect human and animal life. But the fact that the contingency discharge destination for the Bahijah was also deemed unsafe only reinforces the poor judgement that DAFF exercised in permitting this ill-fated voyage.

After the exporter voluntarily rerouted the Bahijah towards South Africa on 16 January, DAFF explored the viability of multiple exporter applications to reroute. But, on 20 January, DAFF directed theBahijahto return to Fremantle port, arriving on 29 January 2024. Questions must be asked of DAFF as to why, on arrival in Fremantle in the midst of a heatwave, there was no clear plan for either the offloading or the reshipping of livestock aboard theBahijah.

It has recently come to light that DAFF decision-making was confounded by the intervention of animal activists. Animals Australia had lodged multiple submissions to DAFF while publicly peddling fake news, posting historical photographs superimposed on land temperatures of up to 41 degrees, fabricating animal suffering that is simply not happening. Only yesterday DAFF reported that 'the department continues to receive daily updates from the veterinarian aboard the vessel, and the livestock remain in good condition'. Meanwhile, in Israel, animal activists are seeking a court injunction to prevent theBahijah from discharging, should it ever reach its desired destination. DAFF have admitted that these actions and uncertainties confounded and delayed their decision-making process. Ultimately, DAFF ordered theBahijah to be unloaded, with livestock to be held in a registered live-export feedlot, pending a final decision. This raises the obvious question of how much suffering animal activists are willing to create in order to achieve their ideological goals of ending not only live animal export but commercial livestock production in general.

One thing that has become clear throughout this entireBahijah episode, now clocking up its 39th day, is that our animal welfare standards do work and are leading the world.