Last night the Australian public was yet again collectively lied to by the Australian live export industry; desperately trying to claim world’s best practice and not withdrawing their motto of “ No pain, no fear”.
A 60 Minutes exposé from brave onboard whistleblower Faizal Ullah showed images that could never be refuted.
Faizal was a navigational officer who immediately saw the injustice and cruelty of the live export trade and bravely filmed atrocities that the live export industry repeatedly deny happen and would prefer kept in the dark.
The bravery, ethics and integrity of this seafarer from Pakistan should be a lesson for us all. I am so proud that a seafarer has made world news for all the right reasons, against a trade that doesn’t deserve to exist.
Unfortunately the TV show was not long enough to scratch the surface of his evidence.
The video below contains footage of what the animals and crew of this trade endure.
It is not the massive industry its advertised as, it is however a massive animal welfare disaster.
Photo credit: Faizal Ullah
Indian ship management companies are a mafia which blacklist whistleblowers……there should be a fund for rewarding genuine ones.
That is a good point.
Thank you, Splash for making this public!
I got tears in my eyes watching this video, and I am a pretty tough guy!
It is clear that enforcing standards or improving standards for live export will not be sufficient to address the suffering of these animals – we must follow the ethical leadership already taken by other countries (why are we the followers and not the leaders?) and ban the practice outright!
Am again reminded of Lynn Simpson’s courage and the shocking injustices perpetrated on her by a complicit Australian government.
The ship involved, the ‘Awwad Express’ is now detained by AMSA at the Port of Fremantle while they conduct further checks on this vessel’s livestock support equipment and personnel. Meantime, whistle blower Faizal Ullah is without a job. Is there anyone out there with the decency, integrity and opportunity to offer him one?
As to rewards for whistle blowers, Andrew has reminded us recently of the USCG’s use of this process to bring ‘magic pipe’ engineers and superintendents to justice. Perhaps the Australian government should consider obligating the live export industry to establish such a whistle blower fund under the control of an independent board of trustees? I am sure that would focus some exporter minds which currently ban cameras from their ships and thumb their noses at the law. Regrettably, the video dust will soon settle and it will be ‘business as usual’.
The posturing by Minister Littleproud is the same as we’ve heard time and time again, from Barnaby Joyce, Warren Truss, Joel Fitzgibbon and Tony Burke before them. A big crackdown on rogue exporters. Really? It has never happened. The Awassi Express will quietly load and leave in the next few days, and the onboard monitoring will show nothing untoward on this voyage. Sure lots of animals will die, but because it isn’t loading in the dead of our winter to sail to that searing heat that causes the catastrophic mortality events, the government will say ‘nothing to see here folks, move along’. As for the ‘whistleblower hotline’, every crew member will have their phones confiscated before the ship even leaves Australian waters. Hopeless and meaningless, like it always is, meanwhile our poor, poor animals will endure wretched suffering and misery, unabated. I hope someone has Faizal’s back. He also risked his safety, bringing us what he did.