Matt Dalgleish: Why Australia shouldn’t ban live exports like New Zealand
Remote Australian communities and animal welfare standards globally could pay the price if Australia followed New Zealand‘s lead in banning live export, says this industry expert.
New Zealand will ban live exports from 2023 in a bid to improve animal welfare.
But calls for Australia to follow suit could result in a decline in animal welfare standards globally, as well as devastating remote Australian communities, according to one industry expert.
New Zealand Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, announcing the decision last week, said there would be a transition period of up to two years while exporters met extra requirements.
There have been no livestock exports for slaughter since 2008, but the nation has allowed exports for breeding purposes.
World Animal Protection New Zealand executive director Simone Clarke took the opportunity to call on Australia to follow and cease live exports.
“The New Zealand Government’s announcement to phase out live exports in the coming years is a significant moment in our history for animals, one which other governments around the world must now follow, including Australia,” Ms Clarke said.
But Thomas Elders Markets analyst Matt Dalgleish said calls for Australia to yield to activist pressure could affect regional communities.
“The volumes (out of New Zealand) in the past five years have been about 40,000 head a year. Contrast that to Australia … we average about one million head a year,” Mr Dalgleish said.
“It’s an important part of the (Australian) beef industry. Particularly in dry years … we saw it in 2019 when we had dry in NSW and Queensland, and there was an increase in turn-off into the live export space.
“In northern parts of the country, that’s where the bulk of our live exports go from, those areas are remote, they employ high levels of the Indigenous population … this would affect the transport operators, the stockmen, and that flows through the engineering at the yards, diesel mechanics, there’s a whole range of people,” Mr Dalgleish said.
According to Mr Dalgleish, Australia was a world leader in animal welfare standards for exporting livestock.
“If you care about animal welfare, you’d probably want Australia to be a part of the industry, rather than Australia being out of the mix … we could go back to the dark days,” Mr Dalgleish said.
Australian Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said Australia would continue to support live exports despite the New Zealand ban.
“The government continues to support the live animal exports trade and its contribution to the Australian economy,” Mr Littleproud said in response to questions about the future of the industry.
He said the government was “confident” in its standards, regulations and laws to ensure high animal welfare and that it continues to improve how it regulates the sector.
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