That this House notes:
1. The rally to support a ban on live animal export held in Hobart on Saturday the 19th of September;
2. That a ban was put in place in 2011 but that live export was sadly reinstated by the then federal Labor Agriculture Minister, Joe Ludwig;
3. That European countries such as Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Luxembourg have all passed laws to ban the religious slaughter of animals and have deemed such practices as inhumane;
4. That sadly the practice of live export of cattle from Australia needs only to meet with international standards, not Australian standards;
5. That in line with China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, tariffs on live animal exports from Australia to China will be eliminated in the next 3 years;
6. That removal of such tariffs indicates the federal Liberal government have no intention of banning live exports of Australian livestock;
7. That currently 85% of the 90,000 live Australian dairy cows exported overseas are sent to China, and that that number is set to explode under ChAFTA;
8. That while cows exported from Australia to China are raised on pasture-based farming systems, milk producers in China are beginning to adopt US-style intensive dairy farming systems;
9. That intensive dairy farming systems purportedly see cows living in cramped spaces, with little natural light, are rarely permitted to venture outdoors and are milked thrice daily on a kind of ‘bovine merry-go-round’;
10. That given the support for live export by both Labor and Liberal federal governments, it is obvious that currently the Greens are the only party willing to stand up for a permanent ban on this cruel practice; and
Further, that this House calls for:
11. State Labor and Liberal Members to join with the Greens to show compassion and pledge tripartite support to lobby the federal government to ban live exports and protect Tasmania’s image as clean and clever, and also prove our willingness to do business in the most humane and compassionate way.