Interview with Tom Connell, Sky News

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS
THURSDAY, 23 MAY 2024

SUBJECTS: Israel-Gaza; live sheep exports by sea; Coalition’s woefully inconsistent migration policy

TOM CONNELL, HOST: Well, big news today and overnight, three more countries set to recognise Palestinian statehood. That would happen next week, well ahead of any obviously two-state solution. Joining me live is the Agriculture Minister, Murray Watt. Thanks for your time, lots to get through, but let's start on this one; so Ireland, Norway and Spain, all recognising a Palestinian state. That'll happen next week, does this, sort of, push Labor further towards that direction?

MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: Well, that's not our position, Tom. Our position is obviously that we think that recognition of Palestine is dependent on a peace process, and it should be negotiated as part of a peace process. And in conjunction with that, we would obviously need to see a range of governance and security concerns resolved. So that's our position. Of course, Penny Wong did raise this a couple of weeks ago and noted that there was a move in the international community towards recognition of Palestine. But we've been very clear that we see that as something to be determined as part of a wider peace process. I heard the remarks of Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden's National Security Advisor, essentially saying a very similar thing, today.

TOM CONNELL: OK, I wanted to get to your portfolio as well. So you're going ahead with this ban on live sheep exports. One question that's being put to you is that, ‘well, we do this ban based on animal welfare’. Fair enough in of itself, but the countries that fill the gap on this, they're not going to be any better on animal welfare, are they? In fact, they'll probably be much worse.

MURRAY WATT: Look, I've certainly heard that argument being put, Tom, and let's remember that this is a commitment that we took to the last two federal elections. So I have seen from some quarters, there seems to be an element of surprise that we're actually going ahead with this. But we were very clear heading into the last two elections that we would phase out the export of live sheep by sea.
We undertook a very extensive consultation process and have now put a transition package of over $100 million on the table to assist the industry move towards more onshore processing, more value adding, which means more jobs here in Australia. But the reality is that if you look at the countries that are importing live sheep at the moment, which typically are in the Middle East, they are already buying far more sheep meat from Australia than they are buying live sheep. So there is a trend towards processed meat being imported into the Middle East instead of live sheep. They do import live sheep at the moment as well, but that number is rapidly decreasing.

TOM CONNELL: OK.

MURRAY WATT: And I guess this is the issue - is that over the last 20 years that trade has collapsed in Australia and it's been replaced by sheep meat exports.

TOM CONNELL: Farmers still seem pretty unimpressed, some walking out on a speech you were giving during Budget week. Are you willing to lose WA seats over this? It's a bigger issue over there compared to the rest of the country.

MURRAY WATT: Well, for starters, we're not doing this as some sort of political move to try to win seats. We believe that this is the right thing to do. The community generally has spoken up very loudly that they believe that this trade needs to be ended. Every sort of opinion poll or anything like that that you look at says that it's got the vast majority of community support. So we're not thinking about whether this wins the seats or loses the seats in Western Australia, but I'm very confident that the majority of Western Australians support what we're doing as well.

TOM CONNELL: All right. Well that question, I suppose, one of many in the mix at that next election. I wanted to ask you about immigration; Labor's been critical of Peter Dutton's move, but not the Premier up there in Queensland. So, Steven Miles said, ‘yep, this is my idea’. He even said that he believes that large number of migrants coming are essentially clogging Queensland roads. Do you agree with that?

MURRAY WATT: Well, I'll use my own words to describe the situation and my own words are that migration is too high. We know why it's too high. It's because Peter Dutton made an absolute mess of the migration system when he was the Home Affairs Minister. Riddled with rorts, completely lacking in integrity, an explosion in international student numbers, an explosion in exploitation, and we're fixing that. So that's why we've already committed to halve net overseas migration by next financial year. We're well on track to achieve that. And every single day we see a different member of the Opposition say something completely different about what their policy is. We saw that shambles of a performance from the Shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor yesterday at the National Press Club. He directly contradicts what Peter Dutton is saying. I saw this morning on your program, Sussan Ley, the Deputy Liberal leader, is now giving a different position to what Peter Dutton said in the Budget reply speech. I have completely lost track of what the Opposition's policy is. I don't think they understand what it is themselves.

TOM CONNELL: Got to leave it there, Murray Watt. Thank you.

MURRAY WATT: Thanks Tom.