John Hassell, President, WAFarmers

On 16 July members of the ‘Keep the Sheep’ group of industry peak bodies fighting to retain the live sheep trade signed off on a letter to the WA Minister for Agriculture, Jackie Jarvis, in response to the Albanese government’s disgraceful vote to put live exports to the sword.

Now I won’t print the whole letter, but it is worth knowing what WAFarmers, the Pastoralists and Graziers, WA Shearers, Livestock Transporters, Stud Marino Breeders and the Live Exporters Assn are asking in the letter, so I’ll quote the key bits.

Minister Jarvis

We want to take this opportunity to thank the State Government for coming in behind the industry, we also thank you as Minister for taking the time last week to meet with state peak bodies in the wake of the bill’s passing to discuss how respective parts of the supply chain can be assisted.

Note: we have been clear that ending the trade is not the state governments doing, in fact the industry is happy to publicly acknowledge the support the Premier and Minister has given the industry but we still need their help.

The purpose of this letter is both to reconfirm our collective position that the ultimate goal must be to overturn the ban, but in the meantime, we need to begin the process of working closely with the state government to make the best of the hand we have been played.

Note: the Federal Government has put $107 million on the table to transition the industry to the promised land of a world post live exports and unfortunately we need to engage with the Federal Government on this funding package or watch it be wasted.

While we understand the Federal Government is keen for the State Government to take responsibility for the roll out of the package, we do not believe they should be given any latitude to wash their hands of the responsibility for addressing the damage that has already been done, nor the damage that will be inflicted in four years’ time when the ban comes into place.

Note: Murray Watt on his way out the door was keen to offload the responsibility for the roll out of the federal funding onto the State Government, while the State Government was pointing back to the feds saying your problem you fix it.

However, leaving the field to Murray Watt and the Prime Minister’s advisors in the lead up to an election as to who gets a cheque and who misses out from the current transition package is a recipe for the complete collapse of the industry.

The challenge the State Government and the industry has is to ensure that any funding that comes from Canberra is not wasted.

Note: even at the best of times Canberra has a terrible track record when it comes to wasting   taxpayers’ money, even worse when it comes to political decisions to shut down timber, fishing or irrigation industries and promising that they can replace them with a viable alternative.  

If they (Federal Government) had read the various submissions by key industry groups and economists, or even followed the full recommendations of the panel (under the flawed terms of reference) they would have understood that any successful transition would have required well over a billion dollars of support and a minimum of 12 years to have any chance of building a market for hogget and mutton that replaces the farm gate price and competition on offer from live exporters.

Even then without a major opening of new markets (that don’t yet exist) and an investment of over $400 million in modern efficient processing systems (Western Australian Meat Industry Authority Submission) there is no guarantee that this is even possible.

Your department’s own submission to the Live Export Panel detailed a focus on mutton marketing and flagged $123 million cost per year over 10 years to WA’s sheep industry and supply chain.

In short, the $107 million over four years that has been put up is completely inadequate.

Given these factors, we believe the WA Government should write to the Federal Government calling for the following increased funding over the next two years:

• $100m to keep businesses in the supply chain afloat.
• $100m to explore marketing opportunities for hogget and mutton.
• $100m for increasing processing capacity.

Note: State Governments regularly demand the Federal Government stump up more cash when it comes to Federal- State funding agreements, be it for education, health, roads, biosecurity etc, so it’s well within the remit of the State Minister for Agriculture to be on the front foot and come out publicly and push the Federal Government to put more money on the table to fund what is an almost impossible transition to replace live exports.

These funds should be overseen by a steering group under the coordination of DPIRD to ensure the money is not wasted.

Note: The roll out of federal funding for everything from disaster relief to regional development is normally the remit of state governments, so one way or the other DPIRD will need to be involved, which means the State Minister needs to step into the ring on this one.

 In addition to the above we request that you explore the feasibility of the WA Government assuming responsibility for live sheep exports from the Federal Government.

Note: we are well aware that trade sits under the responsibility of the Federal Government but there is no reason why DPIRD can’t be the delegated regulator which will hopefully end the disgraceful death by regulation, which has become the modus operandi of the Federal Department of Agriculture and risks seeing the trade end well before 2028.

Finally, and most importantly, we ask that you call for the Federal Government to make an election commitment that if the promised economic benefits of the ban are not being realised by 1 May 2026, then the ban will be reversed.

Note: If the Federal Government is so confident live exports can be replaced by domestic processing and WA’s sheep farmers have a bright future they should have no problem committing to reversing the ban if farm gate prices on offer by the processors are not matching what the exporters can offer.

While this in no way endorses the Federal Government’s decision, nor does this demonstrate industry support for a transition, what it will ensure is that that pressure goes onto the Federal Government to recognise the complexity and cost of what it claims is easy to achieve with a minimum amount of money.

We look forward to posting the State Minister’s letter to the new Federal Minister for Agriculture and even more the reply from her federal colleague.

Those two letters will determine just how serious these two Ministers are in Keeping the Sheep industry in WA alive.

Watch this space.