Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator Ludwig. Minister, you would be aware that, even in the Four Corners report, some of the abattoirs in Indonesia are already using standards commensurate with Australian practice, yet we have banned live exports even to them. By what date will you allow exports to resume to those abattoirs that have done nothing wrong yet have been punished by your blanket ban which has brought about immense disruption in Northern Australia to a major industry and has also created a major problem in our bilateral trade relationship with Indonesia?

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Joyce for his contribution to the debate. Clearly, Senator Joyce is now holding himself out as an expert in abattoir design, construction and consideration. What Senator Joyce misses in all of this is: the trade will continue when we can guarantee appropriate animal welfare outcomes for cattle we export to Indonesia. It is important that the Australian government work consistently with the Indonesian government and industry to ensure we can have that in place as soon as practicable. The onus is on industry to be able to meet the supply chain assurance. That is essential.

What Senator Joyce misses in the whole debate is—and I described this earlier in an answer, which he must have failed to hear—it is important that we can trace animals from the point of departure, through the supply chain to the feedlot in Indonesia and from the feedlot in Indonesia right to the point of slaughter. Without a supply chain assurance that crosses all of those points there is no guarantee that any cattle that leave Australia will arrive in the appropriate abattoir that he mentioned that he has given the tick of approval to. That is what supply chain assurance is about. It is to ensure we can trace and continue to have a transparent supply chain to continue to ensure that we have an auditable and verifiable system. Industry has failed to date to address those four criteria. Industry has failed to address the traceability, the verification, the independent auditing to make sure that animal safety is taken into account— (Time expired)

Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. To the contrary, I have been listening intently to what the minister has said. More to the point, the Australian government has invested millions of dollars in the National Livestock Identification System so we can track animals from one paddock to another and all round Australia. Why can't we use this system to immediately resume exports to those abattoirs that have done nothing wrong and that have done the right thing and complied with our standards and have been of great benefit to Northern Australia?

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Joyce again misses the point. Senator Joyce has concentrated on one form of tracking. It is industry that has to come through with the whole supply chain assurance. They can use NLIS, which is a RFID tag. They can then ensure that the cattle that leave Australia are traced. Senator Joyce has struck one chord, he has managed to identify at least one element, but there are another three that Senator Joyce has not addressed: the transparency, the accountability and the verification—the verification so we can ensure that the supply chain is independently audited at the conclusion. The trade will commence, as I have said, when we can have supply chain assurance in place to guarantee the welfare outcomes of cattle that leave Australia to go to abattoirs in Indonesia. (Time expired)

Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Let us go to the other three chords you talk about, Minister. Your own department issued a press release in January this year that stated that there had been improvements to animal welfare. What were you basing that on? Were you basing that on what we saw on Four Cornersor was that before the Four Corners story—or on a more holistic view of the whole industry, noting the areas where people had actually been doing the right things? Minister, you have been damned by your own words. What are your comments on that?

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will answer part of that question rather than provide you with a running commentary that you are incapable of dealing with. This government has been clearly raising the issue of animal welfare right across its export markets. In January I wrote to industry and indicated they needed to improve their animal welfare outcomes. Industry responded to that with an action plan, which I indicated I did not endorse as it did not go far enough. Certainly the time lines involved in that were too long. They were not going to address the broader issues of how we maintain animal welfare outcomes. I have consistently said that industry has failed to take responsibility for this industry. Industry has let down its own producers in this area. Senator Joyce fails to appreciate— (Time expired)