Australian Greens Senator for NSW and Spokesperson for Animal Welfare, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has successfully established a Senate inquiry into a national horse traceability register. As it stands, very little is known about the fate of the tens of thousands of horses bred each year.

The Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee will run the inquiry and submissions will open soon.

The terms of reference for the inquiry are:

“The feasibility of a National Horse Traceability Register for all horses, with particular reference to:

Australian Greens Senator for NSW and Spokesperson for Animal Welfare, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has called the reopening of the Lismore racing track a farce. Greyhound Racing NSW closed the Lismore track ‘indefinitely’ on 17 January “as a result of unacceptably high levels of major greyhound injuries and fatalities over the past 12 months.

Australian Greens Animal Welfare Spokesperson, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has launched a campaign for an inquiry into a National Horse Traceability Scheme. A register would ensure all horses in Australia, including racing horses, would have lifetime tracking.

The national register would benefit biosecurity, including for the prevention and management of Emergency Animal Diseases such as equine influenza and African Horse Sickness; improve safety for riders; tackle backyard breeding; and combat rural crime.

Senator Faruqi said:

Motion

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

         (i) the Yat Yuen Greyhound racing track at Macau, known as the Canidrome, has been described by Grey2k as a "death camp for dogs" where tens of thousands of greyhounds have been killed over the last 50 years,

         (ii) in 2013, Greyhounds Australasia blacklisted Macau on animal welfare grounds and stopped issuing 'greyhound passports',

Australian Greens Senator for NSW and Animal Welfare Spokesperson, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has held up pictures of the sheep killed on the Awasi Express in the Senate today to highlight the continued cruelty in the live export trade. While holding it, she said "This is what you are allowing. This is the animal cruelty that you aid and abet. You should be ashamed of yourselves."

This comes after the Federal Governmnet failed to table draft versions of the Moss Review into Live Exports on Monday night, as was ordered by the Senate when it passed Senator Faruqi's motion last week.

Australian Greens Senator for NSW and Animal Welfare Spokesperson, Dr Mehreen Faruqi has called the 

Senator FARUQI: by leave—I ask the Minister representing the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources to explain why the response to the order for the production of documents No. 1238 relating to live exports has not been provided.

We are rapidly hurtling towards a future in New South Wales where our next generations will not see a koala in the bush or in a national park and perhaps not even in a zoo. They will have to go to a museum because governments continue to make reckless, irresponsible and greedy decisions that push our iconic species to the brink. Koalas are on track to be extinct in New South Wales by 2050 if we continue our current path. This is an absolute tragedy.

Hundreds of Australian greyhounds were exported to be raced to death in Macau. This is Australia's shame. With the closure of the Canidrome, hundreds of Australian greyhounds have been rescued and are awaiting rehoming. It's time the government took responsibility for their role in this disgusting chapter and helped these groups desperately working to save these really gentle animals. At the moment, there is nothing to stop this travesty from happening again.

I move:

That the following documents be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, no later than 9.50 pm on 3 December 2018:

(a) any draft versions of the 'Review of the Regulatory Capability and Culture of the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources in the Regulation of Live Animal Exports' provided to the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources or the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources; and