Prime Minister rejects invitation to front up to WA farmers over plan to shut down live sheep export industry

Anthony Albanese has declared he is too busy to front up to WA farmers when in Perth this month, turning down an invitation to discuss his plan to phase out the live sheep export industry. Agricultural advocacy group WAFarmers wrote a letter to the Prime Minister on January 9, asking him to set aside time while in Perth for a Cabinet meeting — suspected to be held on February 19 — to explain how and when their livelihoods will come to an end. A senior adviser at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet responded to the letter this week, which has been obtained by The West Australian. “As you will appreciate, every day the Prime Minister receives numerous meeting requests and invitations from individuals and organisations across Australia,” the response reads. “Unfortunately, it is not possible for the Prime Minister to accept all of the requests he receives and therefore regrets he cannot accept your request in this instance.” Mr Albanese has pledged to phase out live sheep exports in the past two Federal elections after the deaths of about 2400 sheep on a ship from Fremantle to the Middle East in 2017. The Albanese Government appointed an independent panel last year to determine how and when that will be done, with its report to be released publicly. Farmers have criticised the Prime Minister for ignoring their pleas and making decisions without understanding the impacts his policy will have on their futures. They have even promised that if Mr Albanese failed to meet with them face-to-face they would run a targeted campaign to flip the four Federal seats in WA that Labor took from the Liberals at the last election. “The Prime Minister has the time to go to the Australian Open but not enough time to meet with farmers over the live sheep trade,” WAFarmers Federation CEO Trevor Whittington said. “The Prime Minister will no doubt find time when in WA for regional Cabinet to make a couple of soft, positive announcements by throwing money around but will not have the courage to face farmers and tell them he’s taking money off them. “The Prime Minister is looking more pathetic by the day — dismissing the request for a meeting reinforces the growing view by farmers that he lacks the courage of his convictions.” A Government spokeswoman told The West that Agriculture Minister Murray Watt had met with WA farmers, live export representatives and animal welfare groups on several occasions over the past 18 months. “He intends to meet with WA farmers again when he’s next in Perth,” the spokeswoman said. It comes as WAFarmers this week also wrote to Kuwait’s Commerce and Industry Minister, Mohammad Othman Al Aiban, urging him to “reiterate (to Australia) the importance of the live sheep export trade to the culture and food security of the Middle East”. Mr Al Aiban was scheduled to meet with Senator Watt this week but the trip has been postponed due to the cyclone in Queensland. Senator Watt was set to embark on a mission to repair trade relationships with the nation’s largest live sheep export market after it expressed disappointment over Labor’s plan to end the industry. Kuwait has warned it will not buy any more chilled meat from Australia and will source livestock from other countries instead, saying the ban threatened to damage broader trade and economic ties between Australia and the region. On average, about 400,000 live sheep are exported from Australia to Kuwait every year, accounting for around 35 per cent of the export market. Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council CEO Mark Harvey-Sutton said it would be “poorly received” by Kuwaiti authorities if Senator Watt visited the Middle Eastern nation to say the phase-out was still going ahead. “We would suggest that it would be ill-advised to go to a country where food security would be absolutely heightened at the moment, given unrest in the region, to tell them that we are going to essentially cut off part of their food supply,” he said.