The Labor Member for Page, Janelle Saffin, is not being upfront about her position on live animal exports.
She rejects claims she’s pushing for the ban as part of a Private Members motion she’ll put to parliament.
She says she wants the frozen and chilled meat export industry to be expanded using Australian halal stunned meat exports.
She’s quoted in what looks like her own media release: “There is already a trade in Halal processed frozen meat being exported and we could be expanding this industry and phasing out the live exports.”
She also tells ABC Rural: “…there's strong opposition (to live animal exports) for two reasons. One from a beef producers perspective, particularly with our meatworks, our co-operative. They would rather that we didn't have live exports. Then there's the humane reasons.”
ABC Rural goes on to quote her saying local meat processors and beef producers want the live trade stopped.
She’s also quoted in the Northern Star saying: “I think we should examine live exports, with a view to phasing it out. We have to have a look at the implications. One of the reasons is that, for humane reasons, we shouldn’t live export. It also impacts on our domestic market – we should value-add here and try to process here.”
This is despite concerns within the cattle industry.
ABC Rural quotes cattle producers saying it will have devastating effects on Australia's cattle industry. One producer says: "I think they should export them because there's more cattle (that) will come on the domestic market.”
Lismore livestock auctioneer, Glenn Weir, told the Northern Star: “This is something that wouldn’t have as much of an impact here as it would in northern Queensland. That’s where the bulk of the cattle are exported from. But down the track, banning live cattle exports would have an impact on our region. The cattle that would normally be exported would end up on the domestic market. It’s basically a supply and demand issue. Having more cattle on the domestic market would definitely affect prices.
“Ideally it would be good if all the beef could be processed here. But a lot of countries prefer to process their own cattle. That’s got to do with religious beliefs. So if they can’t buy live cattle from Australia, they will start to look somewhere else. Then that’s a market we would lose. Once they’re gone, they’re hard to get back.”
Some facts Janelle Saffin should know:
- Legislation and stronger regulation of the livestock export industry has resulted in a significant decline in animal mortality rates.
- More than 99% of all Australian animals arrive fit and healthy at their destinations and the live export industry continues to strive to improve mortality rates and animal welfare standards at the destination countries.
- Australia leads the world in both live export animal welfare investment and best practice animal welfare standards.
- Australia exports chilled and frozen meat to the countries we export live animals to. They are complementary trades that serve different needs for the range of consumers in these countries. In many of these countries, tradition, religion and lack of refrigeration means they need to import live animals, which mostly supply traditional markets.
- The Australian livestock export industry does not take jobs away from Australians. It contributes $1.8 billion to the economy each year and employs 13,000 people.
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