Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to give some historical perspective to the whole issue of the live cattle trade. It in fact goes back, Acting Deputy President Mark Bishop, to our own then colony of Western Australia. It was in 1838 that the vessel Black Swan, which happened to be under the command of my great-great-grandfather, Captain Edward Back, shipped the first live cattle out of the colony and, ironically, it was to Batavia. From the records of the voyage they travelled well and they arrived safely. So our family has been involved in this trade for some 175 years. What is interesting and important to know is that the demand for beef in Indonesia came about as a result of a chronic shortage of protein, especially for the lower socioeconomic sectors of Indonesian society. Up until 8 June this year, Australia had become a very proud and consistent supplier of that protein, through beef. We need to get that back on deck as quickly as we can, as has been agreed.

It might be of interest to the chamber to know some of the background. I acknowledge CSIRO for its establishment in Bogor, Java, of a microbiology laboratory in which they not only provided a pathology service but trained the first Indonesian technicians and scientists in this area. So it has its origins there. In fact, so impressed was the then Indonesian government with the contribution of Australia through CSIRO that they became interested in our trade. It was in 1990-91 that the first cattle left Darwin to go up to Indonesia to start to service the trade. You would be interested to know that in 2010—which is not many years from 1990—we shipped 874,900 cattle to Indonesia, with a value of about $684 million, and we have a herd size in the north of Australia of some 3.2 million cattle. That is the size and scale of what we are dealing with. It is important for people to understand that, in parallel with that trade developing, we had a scenario in which we brought Indonesian veterinarians and stockman down and educated them at the Katherine Pastoral College. This was critical to the transfer of Australian technology and knowledge and the building of relations.

Let me now lay to rest this allegation by others that the live cattle shipment in some way is cruel or abhorrent. The official figures from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, which are circulated twice annually, indicate that 0.1 per cent—one beast in a thousand—die on the ships. More important for people to understand is that, far from it being a cruel trade, cattle actually maintain weight and put on weight on the journey to Indonesia and also to our other markets in the Middle East, Turkey and now even as far afield as Russia. That is how good we are—we are leaders internationally in the design of ships, the management of those vessels, the nutrition, the stockmanship et cetera. Australia leads the world in that. It is so disappointing to hear this nonsense spoken about apparently cruel conditions on ships. It just is not the case.

Meat and Livestock Australia have been much maligned, and it is not my role to defend them, but people must understand that they have contributed, along with the shippers, to the excellence of the shipboard transfer of cattle from this country. They can also take a leaf in the sense that the quality of feedlots now in Indonesia and other places is almost up to and in many cases is at international level. That, again, has been an Australian input. It should be acknowledged that Australia stands alone as the only country that invests heavily in personnel, transfer of technology and knowledge, and assistance to our end markets. Often all we hear about in this place is Europe. Let me tell you that once vessels leave the European shores there is no interest by European vendors, as there is by Australian vendors, and has been for many years, in all our markets.

I come to genetic improvement, and Senator Sterle quite correctly referred to Bos indicus cattle. It was two brothers, Mick and Ray Beebee, of Eukaronig Station in the Northern Territory, who brought the first Brahman bull across to the Territory in 1967 from Apis Creek Stud in Queensland and he was the foundation sire of the Brahman herd across the north of Australia. That is not many years ago, when you think of the genetic improvements which have occurred.

People need to understand just how essential this trade is to the Indonesians. You will hear it said that it is a load of nonsense that they need live cattle because they have got refrigeration and they do not need live cattle, they need the boxed product. Let me put it into perspective for you. The top 10 per cent of Indonesians certainly have refrigeration. They certainly use similar cuts to those we do and they buy out of restaurants and supermarkets. I refer to the other 90 per cent, those who must buy out of what are known as the wet or daily markets. We cannot replace those with animals slaughtered here in Australia. The circum­stances are that the need for protein there is dire. As I mentioned in this place yesterday, Ramadan, the highest consump­tion period of the year for the Islamic world, starts in only 24 days time and they are facing dire shortages.

We hear it said that we can process animals here. Let me tell you about the sort of consumption by many lower socio­economic Indonesians. They are around the abattoirs to collect bones, to collect intestines, to collect hooves and even to collect and split raw hide, the skin, so that they can boil that down and collect the gelatine. What we provide to that market is a very important source of protein and energy. So it is not possible for Australia to simply replace the live cattle market. If we do not get it going again, others certainly will.

The point has also been made, and unfortunately this has been run by meat industry union and other representatives, that it is the live cattle trade in Queensland that has actually decimated local processing. You can look at the statistics going back 10 or so years and you will see that it is always seasonal conditions; it is not the live cattle export trade that determines the numbers of animals slaughtered in Queensland abattoirs. In fact, the opposite is the case. Given the fact that no animals are now actually leaving Australian shores, there would be a far higher proportion of cattle going through Queensland abattoirs. Regrettably, only this week a large abattoir in Toowoomba closed, so it is further evidence that that is not the case. We hear it said, 'Why can't we rebuild abattoirs across the north of Australia to service this trade?' Mr Acting Deputy President, I can tell you that the north of Australia is littered with the carcasses of abattoirs that failed: Port Hedland, Broome, Derby, Windham, Darwin, Katherine—the list goes on. It simply is not economic to build and run an abattoir for a limited time of year.

We have a real animal welfare issue. We have an issue associated with the transport of cattle to the south. We have an issue associated with the animal welfare of animals remaining on leased properties. We have a circumstance where, because these animals are now not going to be shipped to Indonesia, the stocking rates on leased pastoral lands will be exceeded and therefore they will find themselves in default of their pastoral lease agreements. We are finding already a scenario in which the banks are having more difficulty in lending and advancing funds to pastoralists who now do not have very many livestock to offer as collateral. They have no equity in their pastoral lands because they are leased and, regrettably, if and when pastoralists have to leave those pastoral properties, again they have nothing to sell by way of livestock or property; they will merely have their own personal possessions.

Which way do we go in this? Yes, there has been an attempt at some level of compensation. I had a pastoralist only today from the Gascoigne call me to say that in their circumstance they do not meet the criteria, the reason being they cannot demonstrate under the conditions of the funding that they export their cattle directly to Indonesia. They in fact sell to agents who put shipments together, or would have put shipments together, and so they are now excluded from this level of support. We heard yesterday the owners of Moola Bulla station telling us it costs $120,000 a day to run the station, let alone to feed stock. They are indeed overstocked.

We have a circumstance in which the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association is attempting to put together a cattle marketing pool. I believe it should be supported. All Australians must understand the severity of what is going on in the north. As I said the other day, livestock cattle are not a commodity like iron ore that can be left under the ground if it does not get a price. It is not like a production line which you can turn off. These animals are eating and feeding and their owners need support.