Live export consultation panel extends regional WA roadshow to Esperance amid farmer backlash

Esperance farmers will have the chance to have their say in person on Labor’s planned live sheep export phase-out after the panel leading consultation agreed to extend its regional WA tour by a day. But there will be no in-person opportunity for farmers in other sheep-producing regions including the Mid West, Gascoyne or northern and eastern Wheatbelt at this stage. The panel began a four-day tour of regional WA on Monday and was due to hold its last of seven meetings in Albany on Thursday morning. It will now hold another meeting at Esperance Civic Centre at 9am on Friday, April 21, following calls from local grower group ASHEEP. ASHEEP executive officer Sarah Brown told Countryman she contacted Agricultural Region MLC Shelley Payne, who on Thursday convinced the panel to hold an extra meeting. “We had expressed concern that industry and community and producers in the Esperance region weren’t being given an opportunity to have a platform to consult with this panel,” Ms Brown said. “I ended up going to Shelley and saying ‘I’m really concerned about this’, so Shelley contacted the panel, and they’ve agreed to have a meeting.” Ms Brown said the consultation session — which follows similar meetings in Moora, Narrogin, Wagin, Katanning, Cranbrook and Albany — would be open to the public. She encouraged anyone who had concerns about Labor’s policy to shut down the sheep shipping trade to attend the meeting. It comes after Central Wheatbelt MLA Mia Davies on Wednesday called on the panel to add more dates to its regional WA roadshow and labelled the consultation process so far a “farce”. Hedland Export Depot owner Paul Brown took to Twitter on Thursday to vent his frustration, saying it appeared “not all sheep producers are equal in the eyes of the panel”. “No meeting for the northern Wheatbelt or Southern Rangelands pastoralists that produce sheep,” Mr Brown tweeted. “This policy hits them with the same force as it hits sheep producers in the SW corner of WA.” This week’s meetings will be followed by a series of “open, public virtual forums” in May according to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. The online forums will aim to “reach a wider audience of stakeholders and provide an open opportunity for participation in the consultation”, a DAFF spokesman said. “The details and dates of these forums will be promoted widely, including on the department’s website, via social media, and direct communication with industry and other stakeholders,” he said. The panel was appointed last month by Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt to consult with industry on how and when to implement a phase-out of the $92 million trade. It includes senior public servant Phillip Glyde, prominent WA farmer Sue Middleton, former RSPCA chief executive Heather Neil and retired Northern Territory Labor MP Warren Snowdon. The panel will submit its final report and recommendations to Senator Watt in late September.