Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) | Hansard source

The Albanese government's policy to end live sheep exports by sea is blatantly ideological, reckless, shameless and, most particularly, driven by an anti-Western Australian agricultural sentiment inside the heart of this Labor government. I say this as a Western Australian, an Australian and a senator. It is why I must join with others in the coalition in calling out this poor policy, the Export Control Amendment (Ending Live Sheep Exports by Sea) Bill 2024.

Along with the rest of the federal coalition, I condemn and oppose Labor's destructive policy to shut down live sheep exports by sea. I remind our farming communities across Western Australia and the agricultural sector more broadly that the coalition stands in strong solidarity with you. Rest assured, the coalition will reverse Labor's misguided decision and reinstate the live sheep export industry when it's elected to government. I encourage people to maintain hope, because hope only requires one action: to change the government.

The Albanese government's policy is not based on data or evidence, as good agricultural policy should be. Instead, this is the manifestation of an activist agenda, as we heard in the contribution from Senator McKim just a moment ago. It is an activist agenda that is hurting innocent people, their families and their rural communities. Labor's actions carry ongoing consequences for Australian agriculture. It's not an overstatement to say that, right now, no agricultural industry in this country can consider itself safe after having watched this government and this policy. If we allow this policy to be implemented, it sets a precedent for any lawful agricultural industry to be impacted when it suits this Labor government to do so. Our farmers are now right to ask: which industry will be next and when?

It's no surprise that peak industry bodies in the agricultural sector are unanimous in their opposition to this Labor folly. In September 2023, 23 peak groups co-signed a letter to the Prime Minister urging the Albanese government to reconsider this policy. This is an important element, because those of us familiar with agricultural politics know that it is not common—it is actually uncommon—for agricultural industries to speak with a united voice. But speaking with a united voice were the Australian Livestock Exporters Council, the National Farmers Federation, WAFarmers, the Pastoralists and Graziers Association of Western Australia, Sheep Producers Australia, Wool Producers Australia, Cattle Australia, Grain Producers Australia, Australian Dairy Farmers, the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association, the New South Wales Farmers Association, the Queensland Livestock Exporters Association, Livestock SA, the Victorian Farmers Federation and the Livestock Collective. They are all speaking with one voice against this ruinous Labor policy.

There was the unprecedented mass walkout during Minister's Watt's keynote address at this year's agricultural industry budget breakfast. In the same month, the National Farmers Federation passed a motion of no confidence in the Albanese government, citing the live export ban as a key and critical factor. On 31 March, an almost 1,300-strong convoy, involving an estimated 3,000 farmers and hundreds of livestock trucks, stormed major roads during peak hour in Perth's CBD as part of the Keep the Sheep campaign. It was WA's biggest agricultural protest in living memory. On 14 June, thousands of farmers protested at Muresk, near Northam, when the House committee inquiry held its public hearing in Western Australia. I was there myself. I saw it and heard it for myself. I saw the anger and anxiety that Labor is causing regional communities across my home state of Western Australia. Since it was announced, a petition launched by Keep the Sheep has received more than 60,000 signatures, thousands more than the RSPCA petition cited by the Albanese government that garnered just 43,000 signatures last August. These are the voices of Australian agriculture. So why does this Labor government refuse to listen to them?

The government has made a strategic error. It thinks that the low population of WA's regional communities means there will be little or no political fallout for it in Western Australia. That's wrong. The decision by Kate Chaney, the member for Curtin, to change her position and support the interests of WA's regional communities is the most powerful demonstration of opposition to this ban—that it's not a regional opposition but a statewide opposition. And the Labor government will feel the full wrath of this—and on other issues—at the coming election. It deserves to be punished. Labor said with great clarity at the last election, in May 2022, that it would stand up for WA. There can be no greater demonstration of how the government has decided not to stand up for WA than this issue.

Federal Labor chooses to ignore the voices of WA Labor. The Albanese government's policy to end live sheep exports has caused a rift with the WA state Labor government, which is also publicly opposed. Premier Roger Cook has labelled the policy as unnecessary. He noted, 'They believe the welfare arrangements that are in place, the checks and balances that have been put in place as a result of the reforms, have been sufficient.' It appears the relationship between WA's agriculture minister, Jackie Jarvis, and the federal agriculture minister, Senator Watt, is now in tatters. Ms Jarvis has rightly observed that the live export ban is not in the interests of Western Australia. She said, 'It is difficult to see how we can work collaboratively.' In fact, she flew into Canberra last week in an attempt to convince her own party to dump the ban, making it clear that the WA Labor Party will continue to fight for WA's state farmers—meaning the WA Labor government will choose to fight against its federal Labor government counterpart. It says a great deal about the effort and advocacy and fighting capability of both Premier Roger Cook and the agriculture minister, Jackie Jarvis, that they have failed to hold their own party accountable here in Canberra.

WA federal Labor MPs should be taking notice, as well as a stand, because the state of Western Australia is who they are supposed to represent. They have been blindly negligent, both in the House of Representatives and, I suspect, in the next few hours here in the Senate, in consciously choosing to put the interests of Western Australia last—to put the interests of Western Australian regional communities behind the interests of the Australian Labor Party. The political and electoral consequences for WA Labor and federal Labor in Western Australia are real, and they will be very visible when we head to the polls later this year.

Speaking of impact, Labor's policy to shut down the live sheep export industry fails entirely to acknowledge the key importance of this sector to our state and beyond. The live sheep trade employs thousands of Western Australians and supports their many communities—shearers, truck drivers, fodder suppliers, livestock agents, farmers, producers, and the list goes on. It's also not simply a matter of economics. Labor's policy disregards the psychological and social welfare of WA farming communities. The hardship is real. The anxiety has never been felt at this level before. They are disappointed that the people they've elected to represent them in Canberra have chosen not to.

Labor senators in this place who represent the whole state of Western Australia, including regional communities, should hold their heads in shame. The mental health impact has been real and, unfortunately, it will be horrific. Indeed, I know, from many interactions with constituents, that this is already, sadly, the case. Labor's transition package acknowledges the seriousness of this issue but totally underestimates its scale and impact. The reality is, though, that no amount of counselling can soften the blow to each and every person whose livelihood has been put at risk by federal Labor. They have been shamed by activists as animal abusers, yet they really are responsible operators.

It's made all the worse when you consider that these communities and workforces have taken extensive steps, over many years already, to improve animal welfare standards. Since 2018, the live sheep export industry and its regulatory framework have undergone significant and positive change. These reforms include an industry initiated moratorium on sheep being exported during a Northern Hemisphere summer; increased space available for each animal; improved ventilation requirements; independent government observers, to provide additional assurances; skilled stock handlers; veterinarians to inspect sheep on arrival and to quarantine and exclude any animals not suitable for export and travel; sheep loaded with a minimum amount of wool; and sheep often offloaded at night or during cooler parts of the day when in the Middle East.

These reforms were necessary and they have been successful. They have maintained Australia's high standards of international animal welfare. The evidence speaks for itself. There have been no reportable mortality incidents since 2018. While mortality isn't the only measure, it cannot be denied that the results have been exceptional in recent years. They compare favourably to domestic extensive and intensive livestock operations as well as to domestic transport. Australia is also the only country in the world that insists that every facility that receives our livestock, such as feedlots and abattoirs, must first meet Australian regulations.

By contrast, Labor's blinkered approach will inevitably lead to much poorer levels of international animal welfare. If Australia doesn't export live sheep, its existing trade partners will source alternatives from countries that do not share our world-leading commitment to good animal welfare practices. This is what is so perverse about this government's policy. The fact is that animal welfare standards across the globe will be diminished, not improved, by the decision to deny Australian participation in that trade.

Of course, why was it that the Labor government decided not to give rural and regional voices a credible parliamentary inquiry? The inquiry process on this particular matter has done nothing to deliver the necessary transparency or truth on this important trade. It is because their truth—the truth of regional communities across Western Australia—is an inconvenient one for the Albanese government.

On 3 June 2024, Minister Watt instructed the Standing Committee on Agriculture in the House of Representatives to consider the bill and provide a report by 21 June 2024. That's a space of less than three weeks. Only one week was given for public submissions, and there were only two public hearings. The timeframe added insult to injury. Despite this, by the close of the submission period, over 13,000 submissions had been received in opposition to the government's policy. But, of course, it was not possible for the committee to consider all these submissions, and many went completely disregarded. It sounded loud and clear to those hardworking people and communities that made a submission that this Labor government doesn't care. So this inquiry, which is so important to so many, has been an appalling sham, and it demonstrated an appalling contempt for all those impacted.

Further compounding this, on 27 June the Albanese government voted against referring this bill to a comprehensive Senate inquiry for the scrutiny that it deserved. It was quite a remarkable feature to see senators in this place, Labor senators and Greens senators and others, deny the Senate the opportunity for its own inquiry, instead leaning only on the House of Representatives and on an independent taskforce report. The idea that Australian senators would deny themselves the opportunity to test these issues for themselves was just unbelievable.

But, as I have said, there is cause for hope. All that is needed to maintain hope is to change the government, and you change the government by voting against Labor in seats like Cowan and Pearce and Tangney and Hasluck and voting against the Labor Party in the Australian Senate when you vote for senators.