LIVE ANIMAL EXPORT TRADE
911.
Hon LYNN MacLAREN to the minister representing
the Minister for Agriculture and Food:
(1) Is the
Minister for Agriculture and Food aware that Ocean Drover, featured in Monday's Four Corners investigation of the senseless butchering of 22 000
sheep in Pakistan, has arrived again in Fremantle?
(2) What was the impact of this
debacle on the farmers who sold these sheep for export?
(3) How did the minister respond to
the Four Corners report?
(4) What is
the response of the Department of Agriculture and Food to the Four Corners report?
(5) Does the
minister agree that supporting a transition away from live export to a chilled
and packaged meat export industry based in Western Australia would both create
more jobs and satisfy the growing community concern over animal welfare?
Hon ROBYN McSWEENEY
replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
(1) The Minister for Agriculture and
Food is aware that Ocean Drover has
arrived in Fremantle port.
(2) The minister
understands that normal commercial arrangements applied, and that the farmers
were paid for the sheep they sold for this shipment.
(3) The minister
is appalled at the mistreatment of the sheep in Pakistan as shown in the recent
Four Corners program. The armed
seizure and brutal culling of the sheep by provincial authorities in a
destination country is unprecedented. The minister recognises the hard work of
the exporter and the federal government in attempting to resolve this matter
and allow for the sheep to be processed humanely in the exporter supply chain
assurance system abattoir. The minister notes that the situation in Pakistan
was an extraordinary and isolated incident, and should not be used as a reason
to restrict trade to other markets. More than one million sheep and 500 000
cattle have been successfully exported under ESCAS since its introduction last
year.
(4) The response
of the Department of Agriculture and Food is in support of the role of the
minister and working with industry participants and the federal government to
improve the ESCAS and its implementation.
(5) The Western
Australian government remains a supporter of livestock exports under ESCAS,
which has strong regulations regarding animal welfare to international
standards, traceability and third party audit. The live export sector, together
with the meat processing sector, is a critical component of the livestock
sector in Western Australia. It underpins sheep and cattle prices, and it
contributes to the sustainability of regional communities. The livestock export
sector is also of vital importance to the food security of longstanding and
valued customers and communities in the Middle East and elsewhere.