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Thursday, 23 June 2011
Page: 3726

Senator JOYCE (Queensland—Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) (15:01): Mr Deputy President, might I congratulate you on what will be your last take note debate.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations (Senator Evans) and the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry to questions without notice asked by opposition senators today.

If you want the classic example of people who can walk the walk, fly the fly, travel around the world and create an absolute debacle in our trade with one of our most important neighbours, it is what the Australian Labor Party has done in regard to the live cattle trade. Not only did they fail to consult with the Western Australian govern­ment about one of the major industries in their state, not only did they fail to consult with their own colleagues in the Northern Territory about one of the major industries of the Northern Territory and not only did they fail to consult with Queensland; they also failed to consult with the country that we rely on for so much, including our border protection, the people of Indonesia.

This has been an absolute disaster, and we must note exactly where this is leading. We heard the demonstrators the other day down in Sydney and what they aspire to. What do my colleagues in the Senate aspire to? They aspire to a vegan society. We are about to all become vegans—we are about to transform ourselves from eating meat to being hunters and gatherers on the forest floor living on a diet of beetles and nuts!

Senator Boswell: Maybe nuts!

Senator JOYCE: Not beetles, yes, only nuts! But this is the absurd position.

And the damage is done. It has been an absolute blanket insult to a whole nation to say to them that we do not differentiate between those who are doing the wrong thing and those who are doing the right thing; we just think they are all doing the wrong thing. The whole nation is doing the wrong thing.

I stated this at the start: I said this would come unstuck. They have not read five steps ahead on this one, and now it is unstuck. And what do we have? We have a foreign minister who can hardly stay home. He almost needs a passport to get back into Australia. Where is he when we really need him, when we actually need him to go to work? He is here now—it is the only time we do not want him here but he is here. He has been away for 71 days. He was guiding the Arab rise and the Arab Spring. He was over there guiding the process in Libya. He was part of what was happening in Syria. He is everywhere but he is nowhere where he is needed. When something is of real import­ance to our nation, where is he? So help me—he is in the building stacking up numbers for his challenge. This is how disconnected this government has become. Everything is a reflection.

We saw Kevin Rudd go to Buckingham Palace—

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Joyce, you will refer to the former Prime Minister by his proper title.

Senator JOYCE: I certainly will. I accept your admonishment, Mr Deputy President. The former Prime Minister—and well may we remember that he is a former Prime Minister, especially today—before he was ceremoniously politically assassinated by his colleagues, who then ensconced a replacement who is polling at 27 per cent, is now the foreign minister and does not seem to want to stay in Australia. When we actually need him to do a job, when he actually has to go out and earn his salary, he has decided to stay home. Where is his ticker when we really need it? Where is his ticker when we need him at something that is just slightly more important than Kate's and Will's wedding? He can make it to Sunrise to talk about Kate's and Will's wedding, but he cannot make it to Indonesia to talk about one of our major exports.

This is causing major dislocation to the Indigenous people, the Indigenous workers of Northern Australia, to the people of the Transport Workers Union, who actually cart the cattle round, and to the people of the abattoirs in Indonesia. I hope that we are not differentiating between their right to work and ours. We have actually decided to leave them out as well. Where is it all going to finish? Indonesians now, if they wish now, can start sourcing their cattle from other places. This will do nothing to help animal husbandry.

And might I remind you that Animals Australia waited; we know that they had the vision for two months. They were quite happy to let the barbarity that they saw in those certain abattoirs continue for two months, until they could get media bang for their buck. We know that even back in January they had pictures and were discussing their plan of attack. Why didn't they do something about it in January? Why did they wait? Because this is about theatre, this is about bang for your buck, this is about transforming Australia to their nirvana—a vegan society. They want us to remove ourselves from the consumption of meat! And what do we have for this? No doubt Indonesia will look quietly across the borders at us and say: 'Australia just does not understand. Australia is completely out of touch.'