Live Animal Exports

The majority voted against a motion introduced by NSW Senator Mehreen Faruqi (Greens), which means it failed.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) on 2 June 2020 the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment denied live exporter Rural Export and Trading (WA) Pty Ltd RETWA an exemption to new rules which prohibit the export of sheep by sea to the Middle East during the northern summer,

(ii) on 13 June 2020, the Department back-flipped on this decision, granting an exemption to allow approximately 50,000 sheep to be exported;

(b) recognises that the new rules, only recently introduced, were designed to protect sheep from the dangerously hot and humid conditions which will lead to inevitable suffering from heat stress, and put the animals at serious risk of death; and

(c) calls on the Minister for Agriculture to intervene and stop the RETWA ship from departing Australia.