‘Pantomime’: Opposition Leader Vows to Fight Back Labor’s Sheep Live Export Shutdown

An Australian farmer herds sheep at his property near the rural city of Tamworth, in NSW, Australia, on May 4, 2020. Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images

The Australian Opposition Leader has vowed to stand up for the live sheep export sector as he warned the A$92 million (US$60 million) industry is at risk of being phased out for political expediency.

Speaking at a press conference in Western Australia (WA) on March 10, Peter Dutton promised to “fight against Labor’s attempts to close it down,” and if the centre-left Labor government does close it down, the Coalition would “reinstate it.”

He said the live sheep export trade is a “huge part of the economy” in WA, and shutting it down would not only cripple farmers but also “the stores in town, all of the producers of fertiliser, distributors of all of those products that go into making a modern farm work.”

“It’s hard to find an alternative for these farms, their families,“ he noted. ”Some people are very shell-shocked. They have worked hard for generations to build up an asset.”

Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Tuesday, March 14, 2023. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas) NO ARCHIVING

The Labor party pledged to phase out the live sheep export industry during last year’s election. Agriculture Minister Murray Watt recently followed up on the promise, confirming that consultation to phase out live exports by sea is underway, and an independent panel is due to make recommendations by September.

Dutton said the Labor Party has “made its mind up” and that they’re “going through this pantomime.”

The Opposition Leader also criticised Labor for pandering to inner-city voters in big cities at the expense of farming family businesses.

“They have a particular audience they want to please in inner city Melbourne and inner city Canberra. They have no regard for farming families out here in the west,” he said.

A ‘Complex’ Issue

In 2019, WA exported one million live sheep to nine countries, mostly in the Middle East, with a totalled value of A$136 million (US$89 million). The state is also where the two exporting companies responsible for all live sheep exports in the country are based.

But the market has shrunk in recent years, with just 575,000 sheep exported from Australia in 2021, compared with 2 million in 2017.

Last week, Watt admitted that phasing out live sheep exports by sea is a “complex issue” but argued that the “wider Australian community is interested in the phase-out, including those that want to see animal welfare maintained and improved.”

The agriculture minister was “not sure” whether Australia “necessarily is facing a situation where farmers will lose their business or go out of business.” He said that an advisory panel will take care of “any issues around compensation, structural adjustment and those kinds of things.”

Animal welfare organisations applauded the decision, with animal charity RSPCA describing sheep exports as “cruel, unsustainable and unpopular.”

Farmers Stood Up To The Ban

Farmers’ organisations have fiercely resisted the decision, with about 25 peak agricultural bodies and farmers across Australia opposing the policy.

Last week, WA Farmers president John Hassell warned the industry shutdown will negatively impact 3,000 people and have a ripple effect on the livestock export industry and “all agriculture.”

“They’re acting as a dictatorship,” he told Perth’s radio Perth Live.

The sentiment was echoed by the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) CEO Tony Mahar, who said, “cancelling an entire industry based on activist demands sets a dangerous precedent. What industry will be next?”

“Our customers in the Middle East rely on the live sheep trade—and a range of other products—to put food on the table,” he said.

“We are an export-orientated industry – if the government starts cancelling export markets, this sends a seriously bad message to farmers.”

“The policy is based on an outdated campaign by welfare activists that ignores the significant animal welfare improvements made through heavy investment in new infrastructure and practices.”

A Global Trend

The decision comes as multiple Western governments announced sweeping measures that sought to suppress the animal export industry in the name of climate protection.

In the Netherlands, the government has introduced a €25 billion (A$38 billion and US$25 billion) scheme to drastically reduce the number of livestock by buying out farmers and closing farms. It touted the plan as a solution to the high levels of nitrogen pollution coming from animal manure.

Dutch farmers responded by organising massive protests, blockading roads, train stations and airports, and dumping slurry at the house of the minister in charge as they fear their livelihoods are on the line.

Meanwhile, in October 2022, the New Zealand government proposed a separate pricing system on greenhouse emissions, which includes paying tax on the methane produced by livestock, most notably its cows and sheep.

In California, authorities said in March that it would pay farmers not to plant thousands of acres of land as part of a US$2.9 billion scheme to save water.

In the UK, farmers could be offered cash to “rewild” their land, as the government sought to turn large areas of land into nature reserves using taxpayers’ money.

Alfred Bui and AAP contributed to this report.