Indonesian Abbatoirs-Live Cattle Suspension, Duncan
Author: Wendy Duncan
Published on: 13-July-2011
I rise tonight to talkabout the live cattle export ban. I know that this issue has been canvassed well in this house by other members, but I want to draw members’ attention to the fact that the ban on live cattle exports has implications far wider than just northern Australia where our pastoralists have been immediately and quite adversely affected.
As we heard in this house last week, and since the federal government’s decision to ban without warning live cattle exports to Indonesia, this decision impacts particularly seriously on Western Australia. Forty-five per cent of Australia’s live cattle exports come from WA. In 2010, 171 000 cattle, valued at more than $100 million, were exported from Western Australia to Indonesia. In fact, 80 per cent of our export live cattle went to Indonesia. Just today, I heard there are 28 000 people whose jobs are affected either directly or indirectly by this decision. I have been to the Kimberley and the Pilbara three or four times in this last month and I have attended meetings in Marble Bar, Port Hedland, Broome and Roebuck Plains. What really strikes me about the implications of this decision are the disbelief, despair and bewilderment on the part of cattle producers and employees in this industry that this decision could have been made with so little forethought or consideration of its implications and that these people were dealt this blow by their fellow countrymen.
I have followed this debate on Facebook and some of the blogs online, and the level of vitriol and ignorance in some comments disturbs me. I particularly remember a comment in one of the blogs which read, “Why don’t all the Kimberley pastoralists just grow veggies instead”. It shows a total lack of understanding of the industry and of the environment in which it is undertaken.
Another reason for cattle producers’ bewilderment is the fact that many I have spoken to have been to Indonesia to see where their cattle go and none of them witnessed what we saw on Four Corners that night, and none would condone that treatment of animals. In fact, I remember pastoralists in Port Hedland saying that they had been very strong in implementing new methods of managing their cattle with minimum disturbance, minimum noise—no stock whips and no poly pipe. The most noise that they would make would be a “shoosh-shoosh” sound or perhaps to hit their 10-gallon or Akubra hat against their leg. They were absolutely devastated to see this footage. The issue, which has been well canvassed, is that this decision was made not only without informing our state Minister for Agriculture and Food, but also without prior warning to Indonesia, and it has turned into a major diplomatic issue.
I would like to share with members tonight an email I received from a constituent of mine who has a propertyeast of Esperance. He writes —
… I consider the treatment of the cattle during killing as shown on 4 Corners to be appalling and
unacceptable for Australian cattle
.
However live export is essential for the Australian cattle industry and for our personal cattle enterprise. We live shipped cattle periodically for the last 15 years to Israel, middle east arab countries, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Last year, we live exported 1500 cattle from our Esperance property, approximately 1000 of these went to Indonesia. This year, we are planning to live export —
Were planning is probably what he needed to say —
up to 4000 cattle from Esperance with Indonesia to take most of these. Gross value of these cattle will be over $2m.
This is a family enterprise—a husband and wife, a son and one worker—and their whole livelihood has been thrown into jeopardy. This gentleman goes on to say that not only is the live cattle export market important physically for export cattle, it also improves prices for all cattle in the state because it has introduced a level of competition into the cattle market. His email continues —
The first point I want to make is that the Indonesian market is directly important to us here on the south coast of WA. So far the politicians have stated that the Indonesian market is important for the northern pastoral areas, but it is also critical for us.
The second point is that the live export market in general sets the price for domestic cattle in southern WA. Without competition from the live export market, prices in southern WA would slump substantially.
This is what we really need to take into account. I was in two shops in Esperance last weekend. In the first a person was talking about someone in their family who had a livestock transporting company and who owned three trucks. They have had major contracts cancelled. At the counter in the other shop, a young man next to me—he did not know who I was—was telling the lady behind the counter that he was scared that he would lose his job because he was a truck driver.
The implications of this decision are far reaching. At the time the decision was made, it was very ill considered. I commend Steve Pennells for his article in The Weekend West on Saturday and Mr Richard Matthews, whose letter to the editor was published in yesterday’s The West Australian. He speaks of the federal minister for agriculture and says —
He has handled the live-cattle trade with Indonesia fiasco with the finesse of Basil Fawlty. He hasstumbled from one stupid decision to another, making matters worse each time.
Last week I joined the state Minister for Agriculture and Food, Hon Terry Redman, and our Premier in meeting with Kimberley pastoralists. The minister for agriculture gave a commitment to these pastoralists not only to work very hard to get the trade re-established but also to identify other markets overseas in the Middle East, to endeavour to move some of these thousands of cattle that are now awaiting export and cannot be retained where they are because there are new calves coming down. We will see the degradation of the rangelands up there if they are overstocked for too long, to say nothing of the fact that cattle are being held in confined spaces and need to be fed. The Premier also gave the pastoralists a commitment that he would work to try to get their trade up and running. He was to meet with Prime Minister Julia Gillard the next day to ask her to intervene in this fiasco and to ensure that either she or the foreign minister take control of this situation by visiting Indonesia in an endeavour to mend some of the fences that have been so severely damaged. It is an absolute embarrassment that our nearest neighbour has been insulted so badly by this decision. I believe there are 14 million people whose food supply has been affected. Tony Crook, the federal member for O’Connor, today called on the Prime Minister to intervene in this very difficult situation. I want to add my voice to that call. This situation needs to be resolved, it needs to be resolved quickly and it needs to be resolved
