Boyup Brook sheep farmer speaks out about Federal Government’s treatment of concerned farmers

A Boyup Brook farmer has labelled the Federal agriculture minister’s meeting about the ending of the live export trade as “antagonistic” and “insulting” to farmers. Local farmer Charles Caldwell told the Manjimup-Bridgetown Times the planned visit and consultation by Agriculture Minister Murray Watt was “antagonistic” because, he said, the Federal Government was still planning on phasing out live exports. “The whole consultation process initiated by (Prime Minister Anthony) Albanese and the agriculture minister was antagonistic, because they’re consulting on a decision they’ve already made,” Mr Caldwell said. “It’s not a real consultation, especially when they’ve got a predetermined outcome on stopping live exports.” Mr Caldwell said the decision to not release an independent panel report into the phasing out of live sheep exports was “insulting” and showed their “contempt” towards farmers. “After the farmers did that consultation, the Government has not released the report on the information from the consultations,” he said. “They haven’t got the respect to release that report for people to look at and interpret, so the whole process has been treating farmers with contempt, and it’s insulting to the farmers. “It’s wasting everyone’s time and treating farmers with contempt, which is the attitude they’ve had since they’ve come into power. “I have not been impressed by their actions while they’ve been in power.” Nationals leader David Littleproud agreed those in the Labor Party were treating farmers with contempt, and called the meeting with Mr Watt a tokenistic, and insincere “tick of the box” exercise. “The Prime Minister visited Western Australia this week, but all he did was leave a trail of confusion and uncertainty,” Mr Littleproud said. “If Labor is so confident in the decision to phase out the industry, why doesn’t the Prime Minister have the courage to look farmers in the eye and tell them? “Labor is destroying the livelihoods of more than 3000 people who work in the trade and an industry worth $85 million, but doesn’t seem to care about being transparent.” WA Livestock chairman Geoff Pearson said the meeting between some farmers and Mr Watt had unfortunately been a “waste of time”. “It is frustrating because we wrote to the Prime Minister and said we need to talk about Labor’s commitment to end the live sheep export trade,” he said. “Information is still being withheld and even to this day the minister can’t give time lines.” Mr Caldwell said the flow-on effect of a lack of confidence in the live export market meant abattoirs were overbooked and oversupplied with sheep which farmers are trying to sell. “There’s a massive backlog of animals at the abattoirs,” he said. “Because of the lack of confidence in sheep, farmers are selling more than they usually would, which has caused an oversupply at the abattoirs and caused them to be overbooked. He also noted the weather-related conditions of last year meant more pressure was put on abattoirs and said it was “quite concerning” for farmers. “It’s actually getting quite concerning because water levels are getting low, with a drier finish last year, and also less food, because of less rain, and you can’t get them into abattoirs,” Mr Caldwell said. “The abattoirs are going as fast as they can, but they can only process so many per week, and it’s caused an oversupply and they can’t keep up.”