Live export ban: Dutton keeps up pressure on Albo over ‘attack’ on farming communities

Peter Dutton met with Keep the Sheep campaigners during a visit to the Perth Royal Show, where the Opposition Leader blasted the Prime Minister for failing to front up to farmers. It comes after Anthony Albanese took another swipe at the grassroots fight to save the live sheep export trade during a whirlwind trip to Perth last week. Mr Dutton rubbed shoulders with farmers as he strolled the Claremont Showground on Thursday, flanked by Liberal MPs and candidates. “If he (Mr Albanese) is going to close down an industry, he should have the decency to come down here and explain why he’s doing it,” Mr Dutton told the media. Mr Dutton also took the opportunity — his first visit to the Show — to renew the Coalition’s promise to reinstate the live sheep trade if it wins the next Federal election. The Albanese Government passed legislation in July to end live sheep exports by sea from mid-2028. Mr Dutton said the Keep the Sheep campaign was “running full steam ahead”. “One of the things that really strikes you when you speak to farming families is . . . their passion about what the future looks like for their own kids, and if you’re a mum and dad, many of whom we’ve spoken to today, you’re worried about this attack on their industry,” he said. “It’s not just the farmer and his or her family, it’s also the local producers, and it’s where the farmers are spending money in the local communities. Ultimately, this will be attacked under what Mr Albanese is proposing here to stop the industry.” Watching a shearing and wool toss at the Show’s sheep pavilion, Mr Dutton said the ban was one of the major issues poised to define the election in WA. Inside the Centenary Pavilion, he ate a Country Women’s Association scone, before securing one of the organisation’s famed cookbooks, coring an apple, and writing a note to “thank a farmer”. Mr Dutton’s trip came after Mr Albanese flew in for a fleeting 18-hour visit to Perth on September 23, to mark a milestone in the Metronet project at the new Cannington train station. But the Prime Minister angered farmers after again “mocking” the Keep the Sheep campaign in an interview with 6PR, which was broadcasting live from the Show. A small group of Keep the Sheep campaigners gathered around the broadcast truck to listen to the interview, during which Mr Albanese said if they were confident the public supported their cause they would have called it “Keep Exporting Live Sheep”. When host Gary Adshead told Mr Albanese the campaigners were “shaking their heads in belief that you’re still picking on the slogan”, Mr Albanese doubled down. “You know what they mean. Keep the export industry — that’s what they mean,” Mr Adshead said, to which Mr Albanese responded: “That’s not what they say”. It was not the first time Mr Albanese had picked on the slogan after mocking the use of the phrase “keep” to describe a fight to preserve an export trade. Keep the Sheep spokesperson Ben Sutherland said Mr Albanese’s latest comments were “disgusting”. “When he mocks Keep the Sheep, it shows . . . he’s playing the man, not the ball,” Mr Sutherland said. “The name ‘Keep the Sheep’ is about keeping sheep numbers up and the entire industry alive.” Australian Live Exporters’ Council chief executive Mark Harvey-Sutton said Mr Albanese didn’t understand the wider damage the export ban would cause. “Once again, the Prime Minister has disappointingly shown he doesn’t understand the key economics of the issue and the damage that the forecast drop in flock numbers will do to the entire industry,” he said. Asked whether his Government was powerless to stop the live sheep ban, Premier Roger Cook said WA Labor opposed the policy and wanted the Federal Government’s $107 million “transition package” increased. “We advocated against (those laws), but the fact is, the Parliament has made its decision,” he said. “We want to see a larger package . . . (but) unless the Federal Parliament changes its mind, in relation to these laws, we have to abide by them.”