The Hon. David Littleproud, Leader of The Nationals, Media Release, 11 May 2024
Leader of The Nationals David Littleproud said a future Coalition Government will maintain the live sheep trade if it wins the next election, after Labor announced its live sheep export shutdown timeframe, with Agriculture Minister Murray Watt revealing a $107 million plan to ‘transition’ the industry by May 1, 2028.
“Minister Watt didn’t even have the courage to fly to Western Australia and face farmers, instead announcing from a high-rise in Perth, it’s just a big ‘up yours’ to Western Australian farmers,” Mr Littleproud said.
“Industry has never had the science explained to them why they are closing the industry down. Compensation of just $64.6 million is an insult, especially when Meat and Livestock Australia figures show live sheep exports were 84,430 in December 2023, which was a 177 per cent increase in comparison with November export (58,732) and a 44 per cent increase on December 2022 exports (30,531).
“The legislation will be introduced in this term of Parliament, even though the industry embraced world leading animal welfare reforms in 2019, not only in transport but also the processing of sheep in the Middle East.”
Mr Littleproud said this decision will see the needless death of thousands of sheep from around the world, as countries that take up this market from Australia do not meet our world leading animal welfare standards, which makes this decision perverse.
It comes as a 230-page independent panel report into the phase out was also released, after Labor hid it behind Cabinet-in-Confidence for more than six months and just days after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Minister Watt visited Beef2024 in Rockhampton, Queensland.
Mr Littleproud said Western Australian farmers didn’t want compensation, they just wanted to continue to lead the world in animal welfare and protect the 3000 jobs in Western Australia.
Warranine park farmer Ellen Walker from Brookton, WA, went to two meetings with the independent panel in Kondinin and York and said she was devastated by Minister Watt’s announcement today.
“This announcement is like having a punch in the guts when you are already down,” Ms Walker said.
“We are coming off the back of an extremely dry summer with very poor sheep prices. We have had to carry extra stock because if they are slaughter quality, the supply chain is full, and if they are store quality, there is no confidence or feed for feed-lotters to want to purchase.
“I currently have over 200 sheep that I am going to have to destroy because there is nowhere for them to go, it is uneconomical to keep them and I need what little grass that’s growing for my ewes that are due to start lambing in the next couple of weeks. And all of this is with the boats still operating!
“We were trying to be optimistic that getting rid of the glut of sheep over the winter and a good season would see prices improve by the spring and our industry head back to being a profitable business option, this decision will put us back at square one.
“We will seriously be considering what our sheep enterprise is going to look like, which is very disheartening as we love our sheep and would love them to stay, as a key part of our business.
“I cannot understand why a government, who only a few months ago talked about opening up new export opportunities for Australia, is trying to shut down a lucrative export industry that has world-leading animal welfare standards just to satisfy a few activist voters.
“Labor obviously doesn’t care about us, our families, our communities or our industry.”
