Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) | Hansard source

The National Party have never seen a buck from the coal seam gas industry that they haven't been willing to take. I think it's absolutely hilarious that they come in here protesting their belief that farmers should be protected from something which they contend threatens them, when you've got a situation where farmers are desperately defending their right to protect their ability to make a living from their land, to protect the nature of their land and to protect the very water that you proud RM Williams-wearing, Akubra-sporting country folk should all know is the very wellspring of agriculture.

This protest is so insightful. It reveals to the chamber the pantomime that the modern National Party has turned itself into. You guys and I would never have seen eye to eye on all things, but there was a time when the National Party stood for something more than the continuation of its own existence at any cost. We've just farewelled somebody who used to lead you guys who did have a moral core. Tim Fischer did have a bit of backbone. I'm somebody who sits here as a member of a generation of people who don't know anything like the terror of a mass shooting because of the moral conviction of a person like that. To see you guys degenerate from that position to where you are now is just embarrassing, folks. Is there anything you won't do? Is there any way in which you won't shaft farmers to maintain your position at the cabinet table? Good God! It's a bit of an embarrassment and kind of why you're dying out in so many places. But, anyway, I'll leave that analysis to you guys.

On this legislation, here is—

Government senators interjecting—

You know, I seek to entertain—to bring some energy to the debate.

Government senators interjecting—

Oh, no; I compete in the arena of stand-up comedy—ba-boom, boom, tish! On the legislation, very seriously, what we have in Australia right now is the creation of a context around the agricultural industry where we have seen, over and over again, the industry fail to meet community expectations when it comes to its treatments of animals in its care during the agricultural process. We have all seen the videos. We have all watched the exposes. At each step we have seen clearly, again and again, that the industry is failing to meet those expectations. It is in that context and that atmosphere of distrust that these actions—which I remind the chamber once again are already illegal and for which folks are already prosecuted—have been undertaken. I would, therefore, put to the chamber that a context created by a lack of transparency and by distrust ain't solved by 'ag-gag' legislation! If you want to restore the equilibrium, it's time for an independent office of animal welfare.

As Senator Carr so clearly pointed out to the chamber yesterday, there are many instances in which there is a critical role, unfortunately, for certain types of animal activism when it comes to revealing the illegal work of metropolitan based meatworks that place the entire health of the Australian community, or subsections of that community, at risk. To deal with those legitimate issues requires transparency, not more secrecy. It certainly doesn't require a piece of legislation, which, I again point out to the chamber, legal experts have attested there is no actual need for. This is a stunt by the National Party, and I fear it's a stunt given in aid of the government to fill the gaping hole where a legislative agenda should be. Christ, you guys won the election and it's been a couple of months now, and what have we seen? You got tax cuts through. You really have spun the tyres on this one.

What will come after the Labor Party eventually vote for this piece of legislation? What ridiculous thought-bubble will you drum up next once you finish drug-testing welfare recipients, despite there being no evidence, or moving us all on to a CDC cut? It is a bit embarrassing, but, then, the National Party and the Liberal Party have never been above embarrassing themselves or the nation as a whole. That's kind of your new slogan, I would argue.

This bill is unnecessary. This bill has no place in the Australian legislative framework. This bill duplicates state based animal protection regimes. It seeks to impose upon activists penalties that exceed the penalties which are to be faced by those who abuse animals in the most horrendous ways. The top limit, which my colleague Senator Faruqi pointed out to the chamber last night, is somewhere in the region of three years, yet this bill proposes five-year potential jail terms. If you guys can't see that as a bit of a mismatch, a bit of a canary down the gas field coalmine, then I don't know what would signal that there's a problem with this legislation. If you really want to deal with this issue, get beyond the stunt. We need to be led by experts in this space. We need to do right by animals and by farmers and create an agricultural system that works for the community and for animals and is fair, transparent and open.

Quite honestly, there are so many people out there who just want to work the land, who just want to get on with things, and want to be able to say to that corporation, 'Get off my land. I don't want you fracking here.' They want to be actually supported properly by government to bring their produce to market in a way which doesn't put them into destitution. We could have a very nice discussion about the impact of the commercial supermarkets' monopoly upon farmers in this country. There are so many issues that actually affect rural and regional Australia which this Senate should be taking time to debate—so many serious issues, from rural suicide to the provision of jobs for young people and the provision of social services and care. These are the things we need to be discussing in this place when it comes to rural and regional Australia, not this pantomime brought forward by a party that don't—well, I actually think they're a generation or two beyond even knowing what they were originally for. If that side is a zombie and that side is just vaguely human, you guys are like a kind of strange, pointless addendum to the main body of the Liberal Party. It's sad. Anyway, I'll let you think about that.

I thank the chamber for its time. I will proudly vote against this legislation, alongside my Greens colleagues, as we strive for an agricultural sector that treats animals and farmers with equal respect.