Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) | Hansard source

I too rise to speak, but against the Export Control Amendment (Ending Live Sheep Exports by Sea) Bill 2024. I have to say that the irony about the last speaker, Senator Pratt, is that, while she is Western Australian, she is—let's make it very clear—a Labor Western Australian senator standing here in this chamber proudly supporting a bill brought forward by Mr Albanese, the Labor Prime Minister of this country, that will go through this chamber tonight under a guillotine. What an insult to the people in this industry! But, talking about the creation of jobs, I'm a little confused, because when I look at this bill I see that this bill is not about creating jobs. This bill we are debating tonight is about closing down an industry in Western Australia. Quite frankly, Mr Albanese, what an insult this bill is to all Western Australians!

The good news is, though, that we are now less than 12 months from a federal election. In fact, this time next year, Australians will have a new government. So any Western Australian who wants to stand up for Western Australia, is a proud Western Australian and is going to support the sheep industry in Western Australia has a black-and-white decision at the next election. It's going to be there when you get your ballot paper. If you vote for Labor, you vote for the death of the sheep industry in Western Australia. If you vote for the Australian Greens, you also vote for the death of the sheep industry in Western Australia. But, if you vote for the coalition, you vote for a vibrant sheep industry and a vibrant export industry in Western Australia.

What the Albanese government fails to recognise is that the sheep industry has been the backbone of rural towns for over 100 years. It is something that we in Western Australia are so proud of, and it is something that under the Albanese Labor government will soon disappear. But, to add insult to injury, they don't even have the courage to take this bill through the Senate chamber in the normal course of events. That would be to list the bill for debate, to have many people speak on this bill, whether for or against, in this chamber—there are plenty who will be speaking against it—and to then allow a fulsome committee stage so that we are properly able to interrogate the scientific basis for the bringing forward of this legislation, because, as we know, there is no scientific basis for the bringing forward of this legislation, and to work through why such a paltry package has been provided to the industry. Quite frankly, Senator Pratt spoke in glowing terms of the package that has been provided to the industry. What an absolute insult. It clearly shows she has no idea what is going on in Western Australia. Worse than that, as a Western Australian Labor senator, she has shown ignorance tonight in terms of the impact of the closure and the impact of the paltry package that has been provided by the Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Albanese.

There are some very basic questions that need to be answered by the Prime Minister in relation to turning his back on Western Australia. Firstly, with this legislation, why do you hate WA farmers so much? Secondly, with this legislation, why are you turning your back on the people of Western Australia? Thirdly, why are you ignoring the tens of thousands of people—in fact, it is now up to 60,000 who have signed the Keep the Sheep petition, and the numbers continue to grow—begging you, Prime Minister, to listen to them?

I acknowledge tonight the presence in the Senate chamber of, all the way from Western Australia, representatives from Keep the Sheep. I apologise on behalf of, in particular, federal Liberal and coalition WA senators for the way that this government is treating you, but, more than that, the insult they are giving you and your industry tonight by not even having the courage to properly debate this in the chamber. We will tonight guillotine this bill, along with a whole lot of others, at 10 pm. The Labor Party don't even have the guts to have a proper committee debate because they know they have no answer to the questions that Western Australians want answered on this bill.

Here's the real kicker in relation to Prime Minister Albanese. This is the question he needs to answer: when Mr Albanese was recently on Western Australian radio, why did he mock the name of this grassroots organisation in Western Australia, Keep the Sheep? As a Western Australian Liberal senator who backs our farmers, our truckies, the industry, the shearers and those who quite frankly keep our state going on a daily basis, let me tell you why it's called Keep the Sheep. It's about keeping the live sheep industry in Western Australia. It is about standing up for the industry which, tonight, along with the Australian Greens you will destroy—and remember, at the next election you also get to say no to the Australian Greens in Western Australia. Despite Mr Albanese mocking its name on Western Australian radio, what Mr Albanese fails to understand is that this is a grassroots campaign. These are mums and dads across Western Australia, and they are the most powerful campaigns. When mums and dads unite, with 60,000 people already signing the petition, it is going to get bigger and bigger in the lead-up to the election. You know this is a campaign that is bigger than politics. Why? Because this campaign is about real people's lives, it is about real people's livelihoods and it is about the fact that a Labor government under Mr Albanese is tonight prepared to vote without a fulsome debate and without a fulsome committee stage to literally end it.

So, Mr Albanese, despite the contempt that you have shown for the Keep the Sheep campaign, the grassroots campaign in WA that currently has over 60,000 signatures, I want to remind you again what this is all about. It is about real people's lives, people who just get up every day and do what we ask them to do. They go to work, undertake their business and then go home at night. They're just good people. It's about keeping the WA truckies on the road. It's about keeping the WA shearers on the tools. It's about keeping the vets in the communities. But more than that, it is about keeping WA communities alive.

In that respect, I want to quote from what the president of the Western Australian Shearing Industry Association said in his opening statement to the House of Representatives inquiry, because it really summed up what this is all about and, more than that, what the local impact is on the ground in Western Australia. He said:

I fear for our local communities. I'm a shearing contractor in a small town of 500 people. I employ 30 staff. I provide housing and meals, so I also employ a cook. I have a payroll of over $2 million … I spend over $100,000 a year in my local IGA. I spend $50,000 on fuel to run my buses and cars … 30 staff spend their money in Lake Grace. They live in the town, with some buying houses … They volunteer and contribute to the community. I'm the largest employer in Lake Grace …

With this legislation, with a vote tonight that will take place under a guillotine, Mr Albanese, federal Labor members from Western Australia—Labor members of the House of Representatives from Western Australia and Labor members of the Senate from Western Australia—and members of the Greens in the Senate from Western Australia are tonight prepared to destroy all of this. That is the face of federal Labor in Western Australia. And the best that this Prime Minister can do is to make a joke about the name of the grassroots campaign.

What is worse is that the so-called transition package is $107 million. As I said, it is a paltry sum on any basis, but it would have been nice tonight to interrogate the basis of the $107 million and find out what they honestly think they're going to get for the $107 million. Let me tell you what it totally underestimates. It totally underestimates the mental health fallout that this decision to end an industry, an entire WA agricultural industry sector, will have on the members of WA rural and regional communities. It happens to be a fact. This has been raised time and time again, but the arguments have fallen on deaf ears. No amount of counselling can soften the damage being done to each and every member of the supply chain, who have seen—this is what the government doesn't actually understand—not only their livelihoods ruined but their reputations sullied, leaving them pigeonholed as animal abusers by an animal welfare lobby hell-bent on ending all livestock production and transportation.

What is worse—and, again, something that Mr Albanese, as the Prime Minister of this country, is prepared to turn his back on in Western Australia, something that he is clearly not prepared to understand—is that the timing of this ban on the industry is appalling. The industry have raised that. They get the talking points back from the Prime Minister when they raise an issue, because there are no legitimate answers to justify what the Australian Labor Party will do tonight. But the Prime Minister refuses to acknowledge that the timing of this ban on the industry is appalling, because WA farmers are currently battling the effects of a very dry autumn. But, again, that means nothing to Mr Albanese.

The coalition, as I understand it, has an ironclad commitment that if we are elected to government we will reinstate the live sheep export industry if Labor succeeds in shutting it down. We will stand up for Western Australians and not turn our back on them. Unlike Labor, our clear commitment under Peter Dutton—he stood there with us at the Wagin Woolorama and stated this—is that under a future coalition government this trade has a bright and promising future. He made it clear that a Peter Dutton led government will always stand shoulder to shoulder with our farmers, our producers and our exporters. As I said, there is a very clear decision at the next election, in Western Australia in particular, on this issue: a vote for Liberal is a vote for the industry; a vote for Labor is a vote against. It's black and white.

Before my time ends, I move my second reading amendment:

Omit all words after "That", substitute "the Senate notes that this legislation, in banning the export of live sheep, is a clear demonstration that Prime Minister Albanese and Western Australian Federal Labor members and senators are turning their backs on the shearers, the truck drivers, the fodder suppliers, the livestock agents, the farmers, the producers and their families—whose livelihoods depend on a vibrant sheep export industry".