Live Sheep Exports

The SPEAKER: And now my good friend, the member for Chaffey. I missed you. Welcome.

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:22): Thank you, Speaker, and it is great to be back. I would like to acknowledge the nurses and the midwifery visitors here today: an outstanding contribution to our society, and I thank all of you for the work you do.

On a different issue, I want to talk about live sheep exports. It is a very important industry, and it is an industry that is now under siege by a federal government that has done a deal with animal activists. It has done a deal that will put the livestock industry nationally, and particularly here in South Australia, at risk. The vulnerability cannot be expressed more than what I am about to talk about.

There are many parts to the live export trade, and I do declare that my father was a pioneer in the live shipping trade for many years. As a young fella I would go down to the ports and help load sheep onto those ships. Things have changed significantly since that time.

Ninety-seven per cent of sheep that are exported by sea are now exposed to vulnerability. Just recently I was over on Kangaroo Island visiting friends, and a very good sheep-farming friend asked me to go over there and undertake some work for him, and that was to shoot sheep. Sadly, we are seeing many sheep in truckloads coming out of the west. Only by the rumour mill—that is, that the federal government are going to ban live shipping of sheep.

We are now seeing sheep farmers shipping their sheep to the east landing on our areas of farm without feed, without the capacity to feed them, so those sheep on Kangaroo Island are now being shot. It is very expensive to get sheep off the island and have them moved to a marketplace only to realise that there is no return. That is very heart-wrenching. On the weekend, I visited Orroroo, speaking to a pastoralist with quite a large property. He is going out this week shooting sheep, shooting Merino rams. Can you believe that Merino rams are being shot through neglect of a government policy?

I must say that the industry has seen a major reform since the early days. Yes, in those early days we saw a lot of visual impact that many people would not accept—and I do not accept it—but in today's measure, there are many, many institutions, shipping lines, truck transporters and farmers that are better preparing their sheep, better readying their livestock. The shipping lines are now not converting car carriers into live animal export barges: they are now purpose built. We now have much more understanding of how we can better treat our animals, making sure that they are given a golden handshake as they leave our shores to go over to our global trading partners.

The sheep exports are due to cease on 1 May 2028. The closing of that industry is going to have a significant impact on the livestock trade overall. A few breeding stock will go into planes and be exported, but the majority of meat sheep that we see leave our shores will now stay on our shores. We cannot expect that we are going to value-add a sheep, a lamb or a piece of mutton that is going to be put into a box, frozen and then exported to our global trading partners. That just does not work. They do not have refrigeration. They will not buy those livestock if they do not have their religious beliefs upheld.

It is an absolute crime that what we are seeing now is an industry that has been a staple since the mid-sixties being shipped off into the sunset. We are going to see a large adjustment period. It will not be just the $117 million that the federal government want to put in place: it will be a generation of sheep breeders and livestock producers that will have to deal with this. There will be an impact on shearers, transport, the grain industry, the wool industry, the kill space at our processing plants and the welfare of animals. Sadly, the improvements that we have achieved since the mid-sixties are all to no avail. It is a sad day for the livestock industry nationally and in South Australia.