Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) | Hansard source

Too many animals have died and too many have suffered on the ships of misery for decades. Sheep that have been treated as cargo, not as the living, breathing sentient beings that they are, have suffered for far too long. Governments have facilitated this trade for decades, condemning thousands upon thousands of animals to horrific deaths and unimaginable suffering. In 1966, 67,000 sheep died aboard the Uniceb; in 1980, 40,000 sheep died on the Farid Fares; in 2003, 5½ thousand sheep perished on the MV Cormo Express; in 2014, 4,000 sheep died on the Bader III; in 2017, 3,000 died aboard the Al Messilah; in 2017, 2,400 sheep died on the Awassi Express; and, between 2018 and 2023, more than 6½ thousand sheep deaths have been recorded. These are just some of the horrors of this barbaric trade that we know about. There are many thousands more animals that suffer in extreme heat in cramped, overcrowded and filthy containers and that go hungry and thirsty.

The industry has long tried to hide and downplay the true extent of suffering involved in live sheep export, and the government has aided and abetted the industry for years. To this day, there is little transparency about the suffering on board these ships of misery. It is only thanks to the tireless and courageous efforts of animal welfare advocates, whistleblowers and activists who, time after time, have exposed the cruelty of the industry and the failures of the government that we know the extent of suffering that live exports inflicts on animals. These exposes have brought the need for urgent reform to the fore.

In August 2017 Faisal Ullah, a young 25-year-old Pakistani trainee navigation officer, bravely exposed the calamity that occurred on the Awassi Express. By April 2018, Animals Australia and 60 Minutes helped reveal the sickening image of thousands of live sheep and lambs being cooked alive from heat stress, being crushed to death from overcrowding and having their throats slit by crew members and thrown overboard. Shortly after, in 2018, my Greens led bill to end the long-haul export of live sheep and lambs during the Northern Hemisphere summer passed the Senate. But the then coalition government gagged debate in the House of Representatives.

Over 70 per cent of voyages since 2018 have reported heat stress in sheep while in the equatorial Persian Gulf and Red Sea regions. Yet it took another four years for the government to impose a ban on sheep exports through the Middle East during the Northern Hemisphere summer, only for them to then weaken this ban. Even small improvements to the live exports trade have taken far too long, and sheep have continued to suffer horrendously. There have been dozens of reforms, reviews and inquiries since the industry started, but the cruelty goes on. It is crystal clear that we cannot stop animal cruelty in live exports by getting rid of a few bad apples or tinkering around the edges. Animal torture is absolutely baked into the industry's business model. Time and time again, we have seen that nothing can be done to make live export ships safe for animals. This cruel trade is irredeemable. The only option is to shut it down, and I am so glad that we are here today.

In 2018 I stood in this place and introduced a bill to end the export of live animals for slaughter. I held up a truly gruesome photo of sheep suffering on the Awassi Express, telling the government that the system was broken and the cruel trade must end. Late last year, we were reminded just how broken the system is when the WA government inexplicably dropped its charges of animal cruelty against the Awassi Express operator, Emanuel Exports, a decision that absolutely stinks of political interference and holds no-one accountable for the horrific deaths of 2,400 sheep.

The disasters have continued this year. After more than 9,200 sheep and 3,700 cattle were subjected to torturous heat on the MV Bahijah for eight straight days back in 2018, in January this year a further 16,000 animals were left sweltering through a heatwave off the Western Australian coast on the very same ship. This was after they had already been on the ship for weeks because of the terrible decision to send the ship through a conflict zone. In the end the sheep were stuck on this journey for 72 long days, and hundreds died. The government should never have approved the Bahijah to leave the shores of WA. It is clear that the government is completely held to ransom by exporters that will pursue profit above all else, and that will continue to happen if this trade is allowed to go on.

It is high time to end live export. It was high time back in 2018, when my bill passed the Senate. Now it is beyond time to shut down this industry once and for all. This cruel trade has completely lost its social licence—if it ever actually had one. Independent polling commissioned by my office in June 2023 showed that 85 per cent of Australians supported a phase-out of live sheep exports. In Western Australia, where the majority of the live export industry operates, 71 per cent of people supported the phase-out according to independent polling commissioned by RSPCA Australia in May 2023. This is on top of the petition to end live exports that I tabled in the Senate back in 2018, signed by almost 238,000 people.

The Greens and I have worked alongside incredible animal welfare advocates, activists and the community on this issue for years. I say thank you to them and thank you for the tireless work and support of Australian Alliance for Animals, RSPCA Australia, Stop Live Exports, Animals Australia and Vets Against Live Export, among many others. I particularly want to name some people who are such huge animal advocates and who I have worked with for years: Jed Goodfellow, Bidda Jones, Jo Webb and Lynn Simpson. The pressure from these people, these organisations, the community and the Greens has finally pushed Labor to this day, where we have a bill legislating the end date and a ban to live sheep exports.

Today we will make sure that cruelty to sheep can no longer be fodder for industry profits. Today we will make sure that these ships of misery never sail again. Enough is enough. Across the country, people are also demanding a fast phase-out, and, while I'm so pleased that live sheep exports will end, 1 May 2028 is still too far away. I will be moving a Greens amendment to bring forward the proposed date to 1 May 2026. Otherwise, the risk of too many animals suffering and dying over four years still remains. We also want to make sure that exports start to ramp down and reduce every year till the live export industry ends, so that fewer and fewer sheep are subjected to stress and death.

The government bill also has no measures to ensure that the focus on animal welfare becomes stronger over the next four years and that animal welfare standards don't drop, so I will be moving amendments so that independent observers and a vet are present on all ships and a full Northern Hemisphere summer ban is implemented. The sweltering conditions and extreme heat that animals are subjected to are only going to get much worse as the climate crisis exacerbates and temperatures soar. I hope the government and crossbench will support these amendments. The Greens wholeheartedly support this bill.