PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS
Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (11:47): The member for Hasluck is correct; Riverina is a long way from Western Australia. But, when the federal government hurts Western Australia, it hurts Australia, and, when Australia's hurting, Riverina is hurting. Now, I am outnumbered here in the chamber.
We've got the members for Hasluck, Swan and Pearce and my good mate from Tangney. We've got the Greens leader, the member for Melbourne, just behind me. But I'm going to say a few things in this speech which probably nobody—save for my staff member behind me and maybe you, Deputy Speaker Young, I hope—will agree with.
Labor is very good on politics but not that good on policy. When you look at Western Australia, think of what this government has done to that fine state in not-quite-three years. They've banned live sheep exports.
If there is one thing that has hurt— Ms Lawrence interjecting— Mr McCORMACK: We're talking Western Australia, Member for Hasluck, and I sat in silence when you made your contribution, so I'd ask you to give me the courtesy and do the same. Ms Lawrence: Stick to the motion. Mr McCORMACK: I am sticking to the motion.
The motion is very much about Western Australia. Here we go. Point (2)—and you seconded it—moves that this House 'commends the government for standing up for Western Australia and for recognising that Western Australia is the engine room of the economy'.
Well, if sheep aren't part of Western Australia and aren't part of that engine room of the economy, then I don't know what is! It's your motion, Member for Hasluck, and I am speaking to that motion. When you stopped the live sheep exports, not only did you hurt WA farmers; you hurt those Middle Eastern nations which relied on our live sheep.
They relied on them for their traditional festivals and they relied on them for their customs, but what we told them was a big fat no. It was a diplomatic disaster. When the then agriculture minister, Senator Murray Watt—who I've got a little bit of time for—made the announcement that the live sheep trade was being banned, do you think he went and faced up to them?
Do you think he went and eyeballed them? Do you think he went in front of them? No.
He went to Perth and made the announcement, probably via Zoom. That was that; this was this. He got on the plane and came back to the eastern states.
Shame on him! Part of politics is actually fronting up to those people who don't necessarily agree with you when you're making decisions on their livelihoods, and he did not. For those Western Australian sheep farmers, I praise them.
I applaud them. Let me tell you that the first order of business when we get back into government will be to restore this trade. This trade leads the world in animal welfare, leads the world in making sure that we take care of those animals on those ships.
Yes, they had some improvement to do—no question. But to suggest that other nations which will now fill the void left by Australia if animal welfare is the first port of call for them—if you think that, you're vastly mistaken, because we had in place the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System. We had in place a system by which the sheep's pants were measured, their pen sizes were improved and the ventilation on the ships was improved.
It was a good trade. Sheep, at the end of the day, are bred for meat. They're bred for meat.
Ms Lawrence interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Young ): Order! The member for Hasluck was heard in silence, and I'll ask her to show the same respect to the following speakers. Mr McCORMACK: We're telling those farmers: 'We don't want your business.
We don't want you to do what you've done well for decades.' One of the great tragedies of the budget before last was when the member for Rankin went to that dispatch box and gave his speech. The biggest contribution and allocation to agriculture was to shut down the live sheep trade. The biggest allocation that the Labor government gave to agriculture was to shut a trade down—$107 million of compensation to stop doing what the farmers had done for years.
That's the way Labor treats our farmers, thumbing their nose and telling the farmers that they are doing a good job. That's the Labor way. When it comes to critical minerals, we've got the Greens—and God help us all if they end up in a governance-sharing arrangement with Labor after the election—trying to stop mining.
As a coalition, we are the ones who promote mining, and we will always do so. Labor is the complete opposite.