Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) | Hansard source

The issues around animal welfare when it comes to the live sheep export by sea industry have been debated at length over a number of years. I noticed that in the most recent report on the state of the live export sector commissioned by LiveCorp—the research and development corporation that works with the live export industry—even its survey acknowledged that mortalities amongst sheep taken by sea to the Persian Gulf are significantly higher than they are, for example, for live cattle exports. So even the industry's own methodology and own surveys demonstrate that there do remain serious animal welfare issues involving the live sheep export industry, when they come by sea.

Beyond that, what we're doing in legislating an end to the exports of live sheep by sea is delivering on an election commitment that was voted for not only by those on the east coast of Australia but by those on the west coast of Australia.