Albanese Government frontbencher Matt Keogh has defended the decision to shut down the live export industry, despite a huge convoy of farmers descending on Perth in protest, saying the industry was already in “decline”.
About 1500 farming vehicles — including trucks — carrying 3000 farmers drove to Perth and through the CBD in peak hour traffic on Friday morning under the slogan Keep the Sheep, a protest against the decision to phase out live sheep exports by sea.
Assistant Federal Minister Matt Keogh, who represents the eastern Perth seat of Burt, on Saturday defended the decision to phase out the trade by 2028, saying international consumers were already losing interest in live animal exports.
“What we’ve seen is an industry that has been in decline for some time, and you can see that in the statistics — where when we look at sheep exports from Australia — it’s the packaged goods that are rapidly increasing, and live sheep export has been in decline for some time,” Mr Keogh said.
“We’re delivering a significant package of support for farmers, and the entire industry, to adjust to the ending of live sheep exports.”
That $107 million package — which includes about $40M for existing Government functions such as Austrade — has been labelled as “not good enough” by Premier Roger Cook and WA Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis.
But Mr Keogh insisted it was a “significant package” and vowed to work with the Cook Labor Government on how it would be rolled out.
WA is the only state that exports live sheep by sea, with the end of the trade set to result in the loss of 400 jobs — mostly within the State.
Meat and Livestock Australia figures found live sheep exports had increased in December 2023 compared to the month prior, and were up 44 per cent compared to December 2022.
WA Farmers president John Hassell accused Mr Keogh of simply “trotting out the party line”.
“It’s simply not true (that the industry is declining). We have seen an increase even though the Government has been making it as hard as they can,” he said.
Mr Hassell said the protest saw significant support from the public in Perth, with only two people displaying opposition to the farmers’ cause.
He accused Federal Agriculture Minister Senator Murray Watt of ending the trade to secure preferences from minor parties — such as the Greens and Animal Justice, and disregarding “reasoning and science”.
WA Farmers is raising money to target Labor in five seats the Government holds — Swan, Tangney, Pearce, Hasluck and Swan — and to oppose Labor in the new seat of Bullwinkel.
Mr Hassell said farmers would tell people the policy of ending the trade would “push up the price of food” and “devastate the bush”.
He said money for the campaign had been “pouring in”.
The group had originally intended to target independent Kate Chaney in the seat of Curtin as well, but Mr Hassell said they would no longer do so after she voted with the Opposition in parliament to oppose ending the trade.
“It appears that she has seen some sense, you can’t not reward good behaviour,” he said.