Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to add my comments to the tabling of this report which, as Senator Brockman has said, continues to demonstrate the quality of management that we see in the Australian live export industry. Considering the shock that was created to this sector going back eight or nine years ago now, to see the improvements that have been made both in the management of animals while they're being transported and also in their markets is something that we can be proud of. That is particularly so given that we now have this level of transparency where, on a regular basis, industry reports to government on not only the level of transparency but what is actually being done as a part of that process to improve the performance across the industry. In this respect, Australia is and continues to be an absolute world leader in this space.

In fact, we are the only country that has in place an active process of training on management of animal welfare issues in countries that receive our products. ESCAS, the system that was put into place and has since been substantially improved by this government, continues to provide the opportunity for people to see what is actually going on in those supply chains and for people in this country, in particular, to have confidence in what is, as Senator Brockman quite rightly said, a very, very important industry for this country.

The work that this government has done to open up new markets for our agricultural exporters is one of the reasons that we see such prosperity in that particular sector. We know that when you confine industry to a particular and small market the returns to growers from being confined to that scale of market are obviously impacted on. I've had a conversation about this a number of times, for example, with our horticultural exporters in the vegetable sector, who grow something like 25 per cent more product than the market in Australia needs. Then, when they go and try to sell all that in the Australian market, they do not get a premium price because the market is overcrowded. Opening up the markets as we've done in the live cattle sector to new markets such as Vietnam and China really does provide the opportunity for our cattle growers to have options in the market to go where they can get the best price for their product. That obviously then returns a higher market back to farm gate, which is one of the objectives that we as a government have had right from the outset and which was one of the key features of the agriculture white paper launched by former Minister Joyce when he was Minister for Agriculture.

So the transparency and the opportunity for the Australian community to see into the system what the mortality levels are and for those to be reported on a regular basis is obviously very important. But it also gives the Australian community confidence that we can continue to open up those new markets to provide those opportunities for our agricultural sector, which makes a considerable contribution to our national prosperity, particularly in rural and regional Australia. For some sectors, the fact that they have the opportunity to sell into these markets makes a huge difference to the bottom line of their agricultural businesses.

We saw only too graphically the decline in the market and the devastating impacts when Labor quite cruelly, and against what they were saying publicly, decided to close the industry off when they did. It took a considerable time to repair the damage in rural Australia, particularly across the north, once the ban was lifted. It wasn't just a matter of switching it on and switching it off. The fact that these reports continue to be reported into the parliament, so that people can see what's happening in the sector, is extremely important in the context of maintaining that public confidence so that we can continue to open up new markets and agricultural producers in this country have the opportunity to take advantage of those and the prosperity they bring.

Question agreed to.