Live exporters lamb-bast Australian Agriculture Minister Murray Watt over sheep shipping ban

The Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council has lambasted Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt over “alarming” new claims the sheep shipping industry has “lost its social licence” and should be shut down. Senator Watt made the comments during a Senate estimates hearing this week while being grilled by WA Liberal Senator Slade Brockman on Federal Labor’s impending live sheep export ban. “Unfortunately for that industry, I think they lost their social licence because of a range of incidents,” Senator Watt said. “Community opinion more broadly is that that industry should be phased out.” Senator Watt was likely referring to a 2017 incident where 2400 sheep died of heat stress on a voyage from Fremantle to the Middle East aboard the Awassi Express. His comments prompted a scathing response from Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council chief executive Mark Harvey-Sutton, who said Senator Watt had previously “recognised and acknowledged” improvements made by the industry in the wake of the disaster. “There is clear evidence of this reform and WA producers must be mortified that their industry is being dictated by an east coast agenda,” Mr Harvey-Sutton said on Wednesday. “Stating that an industry should be shut down due to past social licence challenges is an alarming precedent that should concern every agricultural industry in Australia.” Federal Labor won the May 2022 Federal Election after pledging to phase out the live sheep trade, which is almost exclusively WA-based. Nine months later a timeline has yet to be set, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese later saying the phase out would not occur during this term of Parliament, which is expected to run until 2025. Mr Harvey-Sutton reaffirmed ALEC’s opposition to the policy, saying it was “unwarranted” and risked causing economic problems for Australian producers and their overseas trading partners. “The policy is unnecessary and fails to acknowledge the importance of the industry to the livestock supply chain of people and our trading partners,” he said. “This is an industry that has reformed and supports thousands of workers in rural WA, and this move would threaten 3000 jobs within the supply chain locally. “The industry’s performance has been outstanding and speaks for itself.” Forecasts for 2023 indicated the industry would grow and demand for high-quality sheepmeat would continue in emerging markets, Mr Harvey-Sutton said. He said the industry “quite simply cannot transition” into other markets such as domestic sheepmeat processing, as Labor had suggested could be done. “Competition in the market is important for growing Australia’s national sheep industry which yesterday recorded it highest numbers in 15 years, reaching 77 million,” Mr Harvey Sutton said. “Those sheep need markets and our trading partners continue to have a preference for livestock ahead of chilled and frozen meat. “It is natural that they look for alternatives given the uncertainty this policy creates, but our industry knows that their preference remains to import Australian livestock due their quality and disease-free status. “To say otherwise fails to recognise the dynamics of those markets and Australia’s longstanding partnership with them.” Speaking in the Senate this week, Senator Brockman accused Senator Watt of ignoring “dramatic improvements” made by sheep exporters over the past three decades, and not making decisions based on science. But Senator Watt said Australia’s live sheep trade was an industry in decline, citing data that showed exports had dropped from 1.9 million head in 2017-2018 to about 500,000 in 2022. “If you’re looking at things like mortality rates, I recognise that there have been some improvements on that,” he said. “It (phase out) shouldn’t be done overnight. We’ve said that we’ll do it in consultation with industry, we’ll do it in an orderly way.” WA Premier Mark McGowan has refused to back his Federal colleagues’ policy. WA Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis this week doubled down on her “absolute support” for the industry after being quizzed in parliament by Nationals MLC Colin de Grussa. “The McGowan Government supports the continuation of the live sheep export industry,” Ms Jarvis replied. In a subsequent statement, Mr de Grussa urged Ms Jarvis to “take the fight to the Albanese Government... who are determined to decimate the industry.” “I am pleased the new Agriculture Minister put her support for the continuation of this vital $136 million industry on the record, but now she needs to act,” Mr de Grussa said. “It is incumbent on the new Minister to take her stance to the Prime Minister and demand that the Albanese Government changes their plans to end this sustainable industry. “The Minister needs to clearly outline how she will engage with the Albanese Government on this issue and what she will do to restore commercial confidence in the sector to encourage future investment.”