Cally Dupe: Curious misstep that may well cost Labor its lead in WA

Anthony Albanese is PM largely thanks to unprecedented support from West Australians. Labor picked up four WA seats from the Liberals at last year’s Federal election, while the Libs lost a fifth to a teal. If Albanese is to hold government at the next election, maintaining support in the west will be crucial. That is what makes his pledge to end live sheep exports a curious misstep. It is known Labor was keen to keep the topic out of the spotlight in the lead up to the last Federal election and not stir up debate. Labor brought a policy to the 2019 poll promising to phase out the sheep trade over five years if elected. It was a pledge that sparked fear in WA, the biggest sheep exporting State in Australia and has more than 3000 people employed across the supply chain. Ahead of the 2022 election, Labor refused to be drawn on the topic. During a debate at the National Press Club a month before election day, Labor’s then-agriculture spokeswoman Julie Collins evaded questions saying a position on the trade would form part of a “broader animal welfare policy later on in the campaign”. But it was the policy that never came. Labor’s plans to ban the trade was only revealed on a policy scorecard created by animal activist group the Australian Alliance for Animals. And it only leaked to the public a weeks before the election, despite the party refusing to tell farmers its stance for weeks. It is truly terrible Labor was willing to reveal its position to animal activists, but not the Australian farmers it would directly affect. And now WA Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis has been accused of “throwing in the towel” and failing to stand up for the State’s live sheep export industry after claiming she had “pushed the issue” as far as possible with the Federal Government. The fact the McGowan Labor government is lukewarm at best in its support for ending the trade shows it likely doesn’t have broad support among West Australians. Farming organisations this week said the ban on was a “red line that can’t be crossed” and vowed not to engage in discussions with the government on how to phase out the trade. And there are growing fears Australia’s $1.5b northern cattle industry — which is built almost entirely on the live export of cattle to Indonesia and Vietnam, and still recovering after the 2011 live export ban — will be targeted next. So who is Labor and Albanese trying to please? Inner-city Green-voting elites? The least he could have done is be upfront from the beginning with the farmers it will affect. This is a high-risk strategy that may come back to haunt him.