LIVE EXPORT
331. Hon Dr BRIAN WALKER to the Minister for Agriculture and
Food:
I refer the minister to a media
release issued by the RSPCA yesterday, Wednesday, 6 April 2022, expressing its
grave concerns about the federal government's decision, announced
earlier this week, to slash the prohibited northern summer period for live
sheep export, which will see, in the words of the release, thousands more sheep
placed at unacceptable risk of heat stress on long voyages to the Middle East from
as early as this May.
(1) Did any consultation occur between the federal
government and the WA state government on the reduction of the
prohibition period prior to the announcement being made?
(2) Does the
McGowan government share the concerns of the RSPCA that established animal
welfare science is being ignored and the basic welfare of animals degraded on
the eve of a federal election, when members in Canberra will have little or no
opportunity to scrutinise these last-minute changes?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the question.
(1)–(2) This
is an issue of concern. I think it is important to understand that it is really
around the margins; it is not a massive change that is proposed. Nevertheless,
I think it is a backwards step. We introduced the moratorium after a series of
horrific incidents right up until 2018. Since the introduction of this moratorium, plus, in the post–Barnaby
Joyce era, the re-establishment of some animal welfare infrastructure at
a federal level, we have not had a single mortality incident that has attracted
attention. This moratorium has worked. It has worked to reduce the risk of
severe incidents to these animals. From the agriculture sector's point
of view, it has reduced the reputational issues that were impacting on Western Australian
agriculture from the international coverage that was given to these episodes.
Certainly, our department made
submissions to the commonwealth earlier this year, and no-one expected a result
to come out so quickly, because the review is not actually due to be completed
for a number of months. The department certainly expressed concerns about the
proposed changes. It does not agree that the Kuwait port microclimate provides
safeguards to sheep transported through the Straits of Hormuz and offloaded in
Kuwait. The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development considers
the sheep risk suffering heat stress, and offloading at Kuwait does not
mitigate heat stress. In respect of the reduction
of the length of the moratorium by two weeks, going into vessels that travel
through the Red Sea, the Department
of Primary Industries and Regional Development does not agree with it. The data
provided by the federal department is
insufficient to provide confidence that the risk of heat stress is being
sufficiently mitigated. From an animal welfare point of view and from
the point of view of the reputational issues for our sheep industry, this is
not good. Our sheep industry is doing really well. Since this moratorium was
introduced, prices for our sheep and sheep meat have steadily increased and I am
very concerned that this measure will now put into the mix all of this
controversy around this industry.
The PRESIDENT: I again remind
members of standing order 105 in relation to the concise nature of questions,
and standing order 106 in relation to the concise nature of responses.