Page 1062 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
I am very pleased to say that in 2009 part of that legislation was successful and we now have much better labelling for the type of eggs that are for sale in Canberra. That part of the legislation has been really successful. Some supermarkets have reported up to 90 per cent greater sales of free range eggs now that they are properly labelled. Being inspired by Ms Porter’s motion, I would like to let the Assembly know that I intend next week to table a new, improved version of my proposed legislation on battery cage eggs and banning them from the ACT.
I now move on to the motion at hand and my suggested amendments to it. Most of Ms Porter’s motion is factual. Parkwood is a cage egg production facility and the largest producer in the ACT. I think that possibly she has understated the number of chickens, because when we looked at the national pollutant inventory it had a quarter of a million chickens rather than only 200,000. Yes, absolutely, it is a sorting and packaging depot for a number of farms in surrounding New South Wales and there is no reason for that to change. That is an appropriate thing for it to do.
Part (d) states that it is a major contributor to Canberra’s agricultural sector and employment with a current workforce of around 60. I understand that it only has a workforce of about 60 once a year when it undergoes what is called destocking, which is up there with the most inhumane practices.
What happens in destocking is that the chickens who have spent their lives in these appalling conditions—I just remind members what we are talking about in terms of appalling conditions. Each chicken has around the size of an A4 sheet of paper to live their life on. This is simply not enough. They cannot move properly. If you have seen any pictures of cage egg chickens, they all have their feathers missing. They are all matted with manure. It is absolutely horrible. It is inhumane. It is cruel.
Even more inhumane and cruel than that, when the chickens have had a year of production—the word they use is that they are “spent”—they put them into semitrailers and they cart them down to Geelong. That is the only time at which Pace employs 60 people, because it takes quite a lot of people to get those chickens onto that truck and take them down to Geelong.
I understand that those trucks have, on occasion, been followed from Canberra to Geelong because, after all, it is a public highway. It has been observed that the chickens on this trip do not get fed or watered. It must be an absolutely horrible end to what has been a pretty horrible life before then.
Reference is made to the economic contribution of $3 million. I do not want to sneeze at $3 million. But it is not one of the bigger industries in the ACT, I think we could say. If this farm did not continue, it would not be a major issue from the ACT point of view. I would also point out that if Pace did stop cage egg production, it could also turn, of course, to free range or barn production. However, I would imagine it is more likely that the land will become urban land. If you look at where it is in relation to west Belconnen, it would seem that is what will happen to Pace.
Hopefully, it will be stopped by legislation in this Assembly. If it is not stopped by legislation in this Assembly, in the not-too-far-distant future, the owners of Pace will
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video