Australian Greens Animal Welfare Spokesperson, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has today tabled more than 238,000 signatures from a petition in the Australian Senate calling on the Australian Government to ban live exports. Senator Faruqi has also called on Prime Minister Morrison to allow her bill to ban the worst aspects of the live sheep trade to be debated in the House of Representatives. Her bill passed the Senate last month.

Senator Faruqi said:

Rhinos are in crisis. There are just 67 Javan rhinos, less than 80 Sumatran rhinos and less than 6,000 black rhinos left. We humans have a lot to answer for. The Greens are proud of our role in combating the illegal ivory trade and of being a loud voice for animals across Australian parliaments. Seventy-seven per cent of Australians believe that trading elephant ivory and rhino horn is already illegal in Australia, so it is really disappointing that our laws lag behind community expectations. The ivory trade is not the only threat facing rhinoceros populations.

Today we have seen the release of mortality statistics from the Australian Meat and Live-stock Industry Act 1997 Livestock mortalities during export by sea report for the period 1 January to 30 June 2018, and they make for grim reading. Thousands of sheep are dying as these live export ships ply the seas in their trade of misery. We are still in the northern summer period for the Middle East, where oppressive heat conditions mean temperatures are reaching above 40 degrees.

Koalas in New South Wales face extinction by 2050. This is the harsh reality that we are grappling with today. This is no accident. It is due to the continued, insistent effort of the New South Wales Liberal-National government in pushing these species to the brink through badly planned infrastructure, through logging of native forests and through their ecocidal land-clearing laws. This is a matter of public importance because we are losing an iconic species, and we know exactly why that is happening.

Australian Greens Animal Welfare Spokesperson and Senator for NSW, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has called the Federal Government’s decision to approve a live export shipment of 30,000 sheep on the MV Maysora in the Middle Easter Summer an absolute disgrace. She has called on Liberal MPs in the Lower House who are supportive of her bill to end live sheep exports to the region to put their money where their mouth is and vote for it.

Senator FARUQI (New South Wales) (12:00): I, and also on behalf of Senator Hinch, move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes:

(i) that tens of millions of dollars in public money is handed over to the greyhound racing and gambling industry each year by states and territories in prize money, for building new tracks and in tax breaks,

(ii) Greyhounds Australasia estimates that the industry is responsible for the unnecessary deaths of anywhere between 13 000 and 17 000 healthy greyhounds a year, and

A Greens bill that would ban live sheep exports has passed the Australian Senate.

I'm so honoured to have the opportunity to speak in support of this bill to end long-haul live sheep exports. Australians are asking us to end the brutality of live exports, and I am hopeful that today the Senate will answer that call. Just in the last few weeks we have all received thousands of emails from everyday Australians, from all walks of life and from all over the country, asking us to end this trade in misery. This cannot be ignored. We must answer their call.

Australian Greens Senator and Animal Welfare Spokesperson, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has welcomed the cancellation of Emmanuel Exports live exports licence, but said fiddling around the edges won't end the cruelty of live exports, calling for a complete end to to the practice.

Senator Faruqi said:

"While I welcome the cancellation of Emanuel Exports’ license, the reality is that the live export trade is incompatible with animal welfare. Suspending individual licenses will not end the cruelty of cramming thousands of animals in hellish conditions on ships.