Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt had early briefing on how to shut down WA’s live sheep exports

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt was briefed on ways to kill off WA’s live sheep trade nearly three months before he appointed an independent panel to conduct consultation with stakeholders, questions raised in Senate Estimates have revealed. Details of the departmental briefing emerged when Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie grilled the Federal minister in Parliament on October 25. Possible ways to go about ending the $85 million trade included a prohibition on new export licences and a buyback scheme for existing ones, as well as the imposition of export quotas to be reduced over time. Other options canvassed included an extension of the annual three-month sheep shipping moratorium and assistance grants for domestic meat processors to increase capacity. Department of Agriculture, Forestries and Fisheries staffer Andrew McDonald, who delivered the briefing on December 6, 2022, told Senate Estimates the latter option could help address “unutilised” throughput capacity in WA. “What they (processors) particularly need is extra chilling space or freezer space, so it could be something that would incentivise that sort of capital investment,” he said. Where WA processors were unable to meet demand from the State’s sheep farmers, Mr McDonald said transport grants or a “freight subsidy” to encourage processing in other States could be an option. Senator Watt said it was in line with the Government’s goal of increasing domestic processing nationwide. “We’ve always said that one of the things that we’d like to see achieved from the phase out of live sheep exports is an increase to onshore processing, because of the jobs that will create,” he said. Mr McDonald said all of the options — which included legislative amendments to the Australian Standards for the Export of Livestock — had “pros and cons”. Senator Watt claimed he did not remember the briefing. “It looks to me as if the department was simply putting forward options that might be considered during the independent assessment, which of course is about to report to me,” he said. “I would hazard a guess, not having seen the report from the panel, that some of those ideas will have been progressed and some will have been abandoned.” The grilling in Senate Estimates came on the same day Labor’s consultation panel was due to hand down its long-awaited report and recommendations on how and when to phase-out the industry. The panel was appointed in March and included former Murray Darling Basin Authority boss Phillip Glyde, prominent WA farmer Sue Middleton, retired Northern Territory Labor MP Warren Snowdon, and former RSPCA chief executive Heather Neil. During four months of consultation, the panel held dozens of public and private meetings across WA and received more than 4000 submissions. According to DAFF’s website, the report includes recommendations on potential mechanisms to facilitate the phase-out, a suggested time frame and options for implementation, and potential ways to support the transition. Senator Watt confirmed the report would be made public but would not say when. “It’s likely I’ll need to go to Cabinet to make some decisions, so I doubt I’d be releasing the report immediately but it would be my intention to release it,” he said. Nationals leader David Littleproud called on Senator Watt to release the report immediately. “Minister Watt didn’t have the courage to travel with the panel and look farmers in the eye himself to say he was stopping the trade, so the least he can do is release the report,” he said. “The trade has actually increased by 41 per cent since 2021-22 but Minister Watt made decisions based on what animal activists wanted, rather than thorough and detailed advice.”