Labor has no mandate to shut down live export sheep trade

We often hear a lot about mandates in politics, particularly when a new government takes office. Governments have a “mandate” to act on their election commitments. The word derives from the Latin, a combination of “hand” and “give”. It meant something commanded or required. In theory it is very simple in a democracy: campaign in an election, tell the people what you plan on doing, and if you win, you’ve got a right to execute your plan. In fact, going back to the Latin root of the word mandate, a government is commanded to. However, what happens if the party of government were less than forthright about their intentions? What if someone goes to an election and wins, having concealed or deliberately obfuscated what they were really planning on doing? In 2019 Labor was pretty up-front about the policies they wanted to implement in government. They even released a raft of policy papers. The Australian people looked at these policies, then proceeded to vote against them — particularly in WA. As part of Labor’s review into their 2019 election failure, they decided to take fewer policies to the 2022 election. They did that, and it worked. Labor’s last election strategy was to minimise perceived policy differences between themselves and the Coalition while playing the politics of personal destruction very hard. They managed to scrape through. Labor won with the lowest primary vote ever recorded, but they won. However, as a result, Labor won without a mandate across a raft of policy areas. One such will have a significant impact on regional WA in particular. Labor Agriculture Minister Murray Watt claimed recently that the government has a mandate to shut down the live export trade in sheep. This is plainly false. Labor actively tried to quash any attention on their live sheep export policy because they knew they needed a good result in WA to form government. In fact, industry was unclear on Labor’s position ahead of the 2022 election because Labor simply had said almost nothing on the issue. Senior figures, even shadow ministers, avoided the topic. Not one WA Labor MP responded to a request from Countryman asking for their position on the issue. Multiple media reports expressed the confusion and the lack of clarity surrounding Labor’s policy in this area. Two quick examples: The West Australian (May 6, 2022): “Federal election: Labor MPs and candidates tight-lipped on plan to ban live sheep exports”. The Australian Financial Review (May 2, 2022): “[Shadow Minister] . . . Julie Collins had been vague on whether a Labor government would ban the trade as recently as the election agriculture debate last month.” Then — and I am not joking here — a Labor representative ticked a box on a survey from an animal rights pressure group indicating that Labor would ban live sheep exports if elected. Even after this, Labor figures deliberately downplayed the issue. Then shadow minister Julie Collins said a timeline had not been established and that they wanted to work with the WA Government. However, the WA Labor government was clear on its position in response: Premier McGowan strongly indicated that he thought the industry should continue. The current State Agriculture Minister is also strongly supportive of the trade. So the issue faded ahead of the election. Labor didn’t say any more. Its small target strategy worked. As Samuel Coleridge wrote, “Silence does not always mark wisdom”. Labor’s silence makes a lie of its claim of a “mandate”. This was an extraordinary act of bad faith. Knowing what their true policy was, Labor MPs chose silence, and introduced an element of doubt once the intention was revealed so that it wouldn’t cause them political damage before the election. Sadly, their position ignores the science and demonstrable evidence of improved animal welfare outcomes in this industry, stretching back decades. Agriculture Minister Murray Watt’s recent statement that live export had lost its “social licence” should send shivers through every part of agricultural production. Not only is it a nonsensical statement in the face of radical activists opposing all mainstream agricultural production systems (cattle, cropping, land management, GMOs, chemicals, etc.), but it also ignores the massive improvements to animal welfare that the sheep industry has delivered. Labor has no mandate to shut down the live export sheep trade. If they spent just a little time looking at the science and evidence, at the very practical steps the industry has taken over decades towards improvement, they would abandon their current position, back the great Australian sheep industry and support our farmers. Slade Brockman is a Liberal Senator based in WA.