Live sheep export industry has long been on its last legs

First published in The West Australian on Monday 8 May 2023.

It is long past time for a responsibly managed transition out of an industry that has been sliding down the hill for decades. The Albanese Government is taking on that task through a proper process that will make sure all stakeholders are heard and considered, with a strong focus on farmers and regional businesses. Australian agriculture will be stronger and more sustainable for this positive change.

How would you describe a trade that has plummeted by 92 per cent? That is the reality of the live sheep export industry in Australia, which has sunk from 6.5 million animals at the turn of the century to fewer than 500,000 in recent years.

Anyone who questions the viability of a transition out of the live sheep trade hasn’t been paying attention. The industry is virtually defunct, having declined almost every year for the past two decades.

The trade’s collapse has been of modest impact because the live sheep trade is worth less than one per cent of WA agricultural exports, and less than 0.1 per cent of Australia’s output. The value of the broader sheep meat trade has remained stable because chilled and frozen meat exports have gone through the roof. Recent trade deals create the potential for further growth.

That is absolutely a good thing. We should celebrate the fact chilled and frozen meat exports are already worth 50 times more than the live sheep trade. We should celebrate a clear shift to a higher-value and higher-jobs form of industry that does not involve the inhumane treatment of animals. In plain language that is what we call progress. Our farmers and the agriculture sector as a whole should be recognised for constantly innovating and improving.

By any reasonable measure the live sheep export trade is nearly done, and the Albanese Government is showing leadership by managing a transition the Coalition never had the courage to face.

We recognise that Australian agriculture has evolved away from live sheep export and that’s why we are going through a proper process to manage a sensible and necessary change. It’s a commitment I fought for in the lead-up to the 2019 election, and I fought to have it maintained at the 2022 election. It is a commitment the Australian community has endorsed for good reason.

There are no good arguments for ignoring the mortal decline of the live sheep trade.

As shadow minister David Littleproud knows, the Department of Agriculture provided advice to the government in 2019 that transitioning out of the live sheep trade would create more Australian jobs.

On this issue the leader of the Nationals may be a stranger to both common sense and evidence, but he shouldn’t be.

He was the minister that handled the Awassi Express, one of the worst animal welfare tragedies in a history of chronic failures. He should acknowledge that his government turned a blind eye when it came to proper regulation of an industry with an awful track record. In 2013 the new Coalition government recklessly scrapped Labor’s plans for an independent inspector-general of animal welfare. Was it any surprise that in 2017 we were confronted with the Awassi Express?

Thousands of sheep virtually cooked alive or left to drown in excrement. And for the umpteenth time the industry asked for a second chance.

The enablers and apologists in the Coalition keep claiming the trade is fit and healthy, ignoring the fact that its principal exporters literally lost their licence to operate in 2018. Overlooking the small matter of how live export ships failed to meet basic ventilation and other animal welfare requirements. Meanwhile, the WA Government is still pursuing a prosecution against company directors for animal cruelty offences.

While the Albanese Government works to protect and expand our high-quality agricultural sector, the Coalition wants to die in a ditch for a marginal and compromised trade that has reached the end of the road.

Rather than face up to reality, the leader of the Nationals continues to blame the whole mess on the RSPCA, Animals Australia and other animal welfare groups around the country when for years those organisations were left to do the job he and his government were incapable of doing.

It is long past time for a responsibly managed transition out of an industry that has been sliding down the hill for decades. The Albanese Government is taking on that task through a proper process that will make sure all stakeholders are heard and considered, with a strong focus on farmers and regional businesses. Australian agriculture will be stronger and more sustainable for this positive change.