Senator BACK (Western Australia—Deputy Opposition Whip in the Senate) (23:17): I recognise not only the calibre of people in the public gallery but also the wonderful quality of their attire. 'Sartorially resplendent' would be the term. I rise this evening to congratulate and recognise the 2,000-plus farmers and their supporters and associates who gathered in Fremantle on Sunday morning, two days ago, to represent, stand up for and defend their industries, being agriculture generally, the livestock industries of Western Australia and, particularly, the live export industry. It was an event organised by Michael Trant from Geraldton, about 400 kilometres north of Perth, and he did so with less than 21 days of notice, when it became known that those opposing the live export trade were to gather in Fremantle to give voice to that opposition. Mr Trant said at the time, 'I have had a gutful of this.' People from the North Kimberley—which is about 3,500 kilometres away—the Pilbara, Gascoigne, Murchison, the Goldfields and as far east as Esperance have also had a gutful. As I said in the media that same afternoon, the rural areas of WA may have lost their vote but, by Jove, they have certainly found their voice. What was absolutely encouraging to me was the fact that so many young people, particularly young women, were in evidence on Sunday and spoke so eloquently publicly in support of the industry. You have heard me in this chamber speak again and again about the fact that animal welfare does not stop at Australia's borders. It is an international event. I say very proudly that we are the only one of 109 countries in the world that export live animals around the world that invests time, money, resources and effort in our target markets. I have been challenged to give evidence of it. I can certainly bring that evidence to the chamber this evening. A young lady by the name of Blythe Calman spoke to the group on Sunday before they moved further down to the Stirling Bridge and towards the wharf. She was in Qatar, in Doha, during the festival of Eid in mid- to late October. She advised us that she oversaw, along with other Australians, in Doha the processing of live sheep for religious celebrations during the festival of Eid. She said that, in the past, the families may have wanted to take the animals away and process them themselves. Those families were still there but, as a direct result of the Australian intervention, the animals were to be processed by professionals and then taken away by those families. The importers were concerned and the families were concerned, but it all went well. The other interesting point Ms Calman said about that particular facility was that the sheep came not only from Australia but also from the Sudan, Georgia, Egypt, China, North Africa and from many other countries, and they were all processed under the Australian standards. That is the evidence of Australia improving animal welfare standards. I, as you know, become very intolerant when activists and others simply stand up and say that Australia has got no right beyond our borders. These are critically important trades for our country and particularly for your state and mine, Madam Acting Deputy President Pratt. To reflect briefly, sheep numbers in the state of Western Australia have halved since 2005 from 25 million to 12½ million. We know, of course, that the live sheep industry complements the boxed meat industry, and I wish to dispel and put to bed the myth that we can just get rid of the live export trade and replace it with the meat trade. The best evidence of this is the fact that, historically, when we have lost live export trade in the Middle East, we have also lost the boxed meat trade. As I have said recently in this place, this year in Indonesia where we have lost 50 per cent of the live cattle exported to Indonesia, we have also lost 50 per cent of the boxed beef trade into that country. People have said to me, 'Well, if you didn't have the live sheep trade then, of course, there'd be far more employment for processors and abattoirs.' The reality is, Madam Acting Deputy President, in our state and nationally, if we do not have the competition from the two trades, that 12½ million sheep will decline even further to the extent that it will not be economical to run meat processing operations in our state. We have already seen at Muchea just to the north of Perth that the average price of sheep in the sales this time last year was $86 a head while the average price this year is $32 a head. Let me also put to bed the myth that is spoken so often about by those opposed to the trade which is that all of Australia is opposed to live exports. Interestingly, an independent nationally conducted survey in the last three weeks has indicated that 54 per cent of a survey group of 1,925 people support live exports, if it can be demonstrated to be undertaken humanely, 25 per cent were opposed and six per cent were undecided. I refer back to that 54 per cent, because 58 per cent of the people who identified themselves as Greens voters in fact supported the live export trade from Australia as long as we can show that it is undertaken humanely. I have spoken at some length about the events recently in Pakistan with sheep that were needlessly and mercilessly killed, culled, by a group of people. I make these points in the brief time I have available to me. The first is that those animals were killed, culled, by criminals, by thugs. They were killed by people in an unauthorised way over and above the directives of the Supreme Court of Karachi, the judge of which had ordered that those animals not be culled until he was satisfied as to their health status. Of course, the health status of those Australian sheep was very, very good. The second point, over and above the ignoring of that court order, was the fact that the feedlot staff and the staff of the exporter were forced out of that feedlot at gunpoint. We have had people in this place say they should have maintained control of those animals. When you are being asked at the point of a gun to leave the facility, I think we all know what we would do. The third point I make in relation to that is the fact that I have estimated—and the export has confirmed—that those 20,000 sheep would have dressed out at about 500,000 kilograms. That is 500 tonnes of sheep meat in a country where children are deprived of protein, where families starve leading up to the religious festival of Eid. It is unconscionable that 500 tonnes of sheep meat could have been thrown needlessly into a pit. It causes me to ask: given the fact that Australia actually gives aid of about $100 million a year to Pakistan and that that is within the 12 highest amounts of aid that we give to countries, why is our relationship with Pakistan not mature enough that that matter could have been dealt with? That is an area I certainly propose to take up in greater detail in this place later this year and next year. In relation to the live export trade, I reserve my final comments for those about a question asked yesterday by Senator Rhiannon of Senator Ludwig, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, about the apparent aberration of behaviour in an abattoir in Chibanong, Indonesia, on 28 September. All we have heard is that an unnamed Animals Australia investigator was able to point to the fact that those animals were not in fact treated humanely and that for some reason there has been a breach of the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System. The minister was asked to explain this. I made it my business to establish what went on in that abattoir on that evening, and it is this. First of all, there were six Australian heifers. They were not part of ESCAS. There never was a requirement. But the more important point about that evening that was made to me by those people who were at the abattoir or representing them was that, without any intervention by them, the Indonesian slaughtermen stunned those animals and processed them in a humane way. Why is it we in this place and in the wider media have to put up with the nonsense by media and by others when people can find out facts for themselves? It is something I believe must happen.