Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

  (i) Meat Free Week, organised by Bowel Cancer Australia, runs from 23 to 29 September 2019, and challenges participants to give up meat for seven days,

  (ii) intensive animal agriculture is not only cruel to animals, but is a key contributor to the climate crisis, and

  (iii) reducing the amount of meat we consume is better for our health, better for animal welfare and better for the environment; and

(b) congratulates the organisers of Meat Free Week, and encourages people to reduce their meat consumption to improve their health and for the good of animals and the planet.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Scott Ryan (President) | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) | Link to this | Hansard source

The government encourages all Australians between the ages of 50 and 74 to participate in the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program. If caught early, 90 per cent of bowel cancers can be successfully treated. The Morrison government has recently invested $10 million in an advertising blitz to boost participation in this free and lifesaving program. The government encourages a healthy and balanced diet in accordance with the Australian Dietary Guidelines. These guidelines outline that Australians should enjoy a wide variety of nutritious foods, including lean meat, poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds, legumes and beans.

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Scott Ryan (President) | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

When this motion came up, one of the staffers in my office, who just lost his wife a couple of months ago through bowel cancer and liver cancer, was absolutely incensed by this notice of motion connecting bowel cancer to eating meat. He was disgusted with the Greens for putting up this motion. He is a person who has lost a loved one, his wife of many years, through cancer, so he was not impressed with this notice of motion. One Nation will not be supporting it.

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Scott Ryan (President) | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor will also be opposing this motion, not because we don't support the great work undertaken by Bowel Cancer Australia, but because, as we've seen within a lot of motions this week, the Greens are writing their motions with a deliberate view to dividing the Senate. Subclause (ii) of this motion goes directly to that point. I think the other elements of the motion are fine. Meat Free Week is a great campaign. It is an important message that people can make little changes to their diet, but the Greens have inserted a paragraph that puts us all in a difficult position, because people across the Senate will have different views about this. Every motion they are moving at the moment has a clause like this. This section of the program, as I have said a number of times, is about things where there is generally consensus. This is just getting to be a bit more than a joke, to be honest.

Scott Ryan (President) | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that motion No. 145, moved by Senator Faruqi, be agreed to.