Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I rise to speak on the Australian Meat and Live-stock Industry Act 1997 Livestock mortalities during export by seareports for the period of 1 July to 31 December 2017. Live exports are obviously a vital part of the agricultural sector, particularly in my home state of Western Australia. The latest livestock mortality report shows an ongoing very good result for the sector in delivering very good animal welfare outcomes for the live export trade. We've seen fairly stable, but slowly declining, mortality rates for the live export trade, particularly in the cattle sector, over the seven years of the reporting, as published on the departmental website. We saw a rate in 2010 of 0.14 per cent. There's been a little bit of movement up and down but it's been fairly constant around that level, declining in 2017 to 0.1 per cent. Obviously the industry continues to improve over time. Similarly in the sheep export trade, we've seen, again, a little bit of movement up and down, but we've seen another period of equal best reporting over the period 2010 to 2017, declining from 0.89 per cent in 2010 to 0.71 per cent in 2017, which was, as I mentioned, the equal best result in that particular area of the trade, equal with 2014.

Obviously the live export trade does attract some criticism, particularly from green groups, but it is a very important part of the agricultural sector. We have a long tradition of exporting livestock to overseas markets and we have a very proud tradition of providing very high animal welfare standards. With the ESCAS process and with the active engagement of the live animal sector with overseas markets, we are continuing to see improvements in animal welfare in overseas markets as well. Obviously it's not all smooth sailing. There are different approaches to animal welfare in different countries, and we have seen the results trumpeted across our TV screens at various times throughout the years. However, as this report shows, we do see a slow but steady and clear improvement in the mortality rates over time.

As someone who comes from a farming background, I know that farmers and entities associated with the farm sector, including the live export trade, have a very high commitment to animal welfare standards, both on their own properties and through the supply chain. The sector has been very proactive in making sure that animal welfare standards are paramount, in areas that we obviously control, such as our own farms, and through the supply chain, through the live export chain and then on into overseas markets. Importing countries need to have confidence in the system as well. They need to have confidence in the health status and quality of Australian livestock. Our regulatory certification system is obviously the most robust and comprehensive in the world. In order to supply those markets, we need to be able to show both the Australian community and those foreign markets that we have a very robust, very strong animal welfare focused supply chain. Again, the live export sector is extremely important to the agricultural sector, particularly to the agricultural sector in WA.

Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to add my comments to the tabling of this report which, as Senator Brockman has said, continues to demonstrate the quality of management that we see in the Australian live export industry. Considering the shock that was created to this sector going back eight or nine years ago now, to see the improvements that have been made both in the management of animals while they're being transported and also in their markets is something that we can be proud of. That is particularly so given that we now have this level of transparency where, on a regular basis, industry reports to government on not only the level of transparency but what is actually being done as a part of that process to improve the performance across the industry. In this respect, Australia is and continues to be an absolute world leader in this space.

In fact, we are the only country that has in place an active process of training on management of animal welfare issues in countries that receive our products. ESCAS, the system that was put into place and has since been substantially improved by this government, continues to provide the opportunity for people to see what is actually going on in those supply chains and for people in this country, in particular, to have confidence in what is, as Senator Brockman quite rightly said, a very, very important industry for this country.

The work that this government has done to open up new markets for our agricultural exporters is one of the reasons that we see such prosperity in that particular sector. We know that when you confine industry to a particular and small market the returns to growers from being confined to that scale of market are obviously impacted on. I've had a conversation about this a number of times, for example, with our horticultural exporters in the vegetable sector, who grow something like 25 per cent more product than the market in Australia needs. Then, when they go and try to sell all that in the Australian market, they do not get a premium price because the market is overcrowded. Opening up the markets as we've done in the live cattle sector to new markets such as Vietnam and China really does provide the opportunity for our cattle growers to have options in the market to go where they can get the best price for their product. That obviously then returns a higher market back to farm gate, which is one of the objectives that we as a government have had right from the outset and which was one of the key features of the agriculture white paper launched by former Minister Joyce when he was Minister for Agriculture.

So the transparency and the opportunity for the Australian community to see into the system what the mortality levels are and for those to be reported on a regular basis is obviously very important. But it also gives the Australian community confidence that we can continue to open up those new markets to provide those opportunities for our agricultural sector, which makes a considerable contribution to our national prosperity, particularly in rural and regional Australia. For some sectors, the fact that they have the opportunity to sell into these markets makes a huge difference to the bottom line of their agricultural businesses.

We saw only too graphically the decline in the market and the devastating impacts when Labor quite cruelly, and against what they were saying publicly, decided to close the industry off when they did. It took a considerable time to repair the damage in rural Australia, particularly across the north, once the ban was lifted. It wasn't just a matter of switching it on and switching it off. The fact that these reports continue to be reported into the parliament, so that people can see what's happening in the sector, is extremely important in the context of maintaining that public confidence so that we can continue to open up new markets and agricultural producers in this country have the opportunity to take advantage of those and the prosperity they bring.

Question agreed to.