Aussie MP tables bill to ban live sheep exports to Middle East by 2023

Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-21 11:00:53|Editor: Chengcheng
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CANBERRA, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Australian member of parliament Sussan Ley has introduced legislation to the Australian parliament which would phase out the live-export trade of sheep to the Middle East over the next five years.

Ley introduced the Live Sheep Long Haul Export Prohibition Bill 2018 on Monday morning which, if passed, would see an immediate suspension of live exports over the three months of the northern summer, from July to September.

By 2023, the practice of sending ship-loads of live Australian sheep to the Middle East would end. The bill has been supported by both the Greens and Labor parties.

Ley said she was moved to table the legislation following distressing television footage earlier this year which showed sheep dying in horrific conditions during Middle East-bound voyages.

Ley said after 15 years advocating for the live export industry, she had looked again with "fresh eyes" and had been "shocked, angered and disappointed."

"The case for live sheep exports fails on both economic and animal welfare grounds," Ley told the chamber on Monday.

"The live sheep trade is in terminal decline, dropping by two thirds in the last five years."

"The litany of animal cruelty in the live sheep trade makes a mockery of the no pain, no fear mantra. If the rules were actually enforced, avoiding high heat stress, no commercial operator would undertake the trade. Unfortunately, this is an industry with an operating model built on animal suffering."

Labor's agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon confirmed the opposition will support the bill.

"Private member's bills are not the ideal way to promote legislation, but this is what happens when the government of the day vacates the field of an issue which is so important to the Australian community," he told reporters in Canberra.

Former National Party leader and Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce rejected the bill, however, fearing the impact on farmers.

"If you shut down the live sheep trade you're going to make people poorer," he told reporters on Monday.

Ley applauded the government's reforms to export rules but said they "will not go far enough," noting that a 60 kg sheep would get an increase in space "equivalent to just under two A4 pieces of paper."

She said Australia had been "deceived by an export industry that has had 33 years and countless second chances" and the industry "has been very good at talking the talk and downright culpable when it comes to walking the walk."

"Exporters do not comply with the rules, most of the live export chain is outside of Australia's legal jurisdiction in international waters and overseas countries. As one Western Australian consultant to the trade told me, regulations written on paper in Australia ceased to mean anything once the ship departs."

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