Live export policy wording echoes activist report

Farm Weekly easily obtained the report online while searching for the original announcement of the commitment the government made in the lead up to the 2019 election, which carried over to the 2022 election.

The report was compiled by Pegasus Economics, Alistair Davey and Roger Fisher, a public consultancy firm that in its own words specialises in "strategy and policy advice" among other areas.

"This report has been commissioned by Animals Australia to examine the economic impact arising from the 'phasing out of the live sheep export trade'," the report introduction states.

One of the main parameters as stated in the Pegasus report is the phase-out of the live sheep export trade would only have a very small impact on the industry in terms of market prices, something that has already been proven wrong in the past few weeks, and that the WA processing sector would be able to handle the extra volume of sheep on the kill sheets.

The reality is this is not possible at present and requires more education/training, more safety gear and more employees - and more abattoirs.

Further supporting the theory the Labor government's commitment prior to both elections and now the ensuing policy may be directly related to the Pegasus report, National Farmers' Federation (NFF) president Fiona Simson also called the government out on its live sheep export policy, saying it was based on politics and not facts, at last week's NFF general council meeting.

"We heard both ministers talk about growing trade and using evidence to drive the future of agriculture in Australia," Ms Simson said.

"We'll continue to call on the government to back up their rhetoric and provide evidence for their decisions.

"Every part of the farm sector is nervous that a government could fall victim to the ideology and misinformation of radical activists, rather than back farmers and simply act on the evidence."

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Speaking at the Northern Territory Cattleman's Association's (NTLA) 38th annual conference in March, in front of a huge audience including Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt, president David Connolly said the live sheep ban was not based "on a skerrick" of scientific fact but a 2018 statement made when live export emotion was running high.

He said cattle producers don't believe Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's claims that their industry is safe and won't be targeted next.

"Why should we?" Mr Connolly said.

"This is a PM whose chief agricultural adviser was one of the leaders of the campaign to close our businesses in 2011 and who has publicly stated a belief that all 'mainstream animal farming is inherently cruel'.

"But both Minister Watt and I have a boss who pays the salary that feeds our family and when my boss says go chop the wood, I go chop the wood," he said.

"If the minister's boss says go close the cattle trade, what do you think will happen?"

Mr Connolly said it was an unimpeachable truth that losing the live sheep trade would do nothing but "empower those who do not just oppose live export, but livestock farming in general".

"Those who would seek an end to our livelihoods because they believe farming and the people who do it to be evil, to have outlived our utility for modern society.

"Now the entire ag sector doesn't trust a government that trades them off for inner city votes."

Speaking to Australian Community Media, parent company of Farm Weekly, at the conference Northern Queensland beef producer Don Heatley said the threat had changed.

"The greatest problem we face now is that the argument has become very, very political," Mr Heatley said.

"Both the sheep and cattle industries have demonstrated enormous progress (in animal welfare management) and there is scientific evidence to prove that.

"But it was a political promise leading into the election and the government is sticking with that.

"The overriding factor is now they will listen to minority groups who are still beavering away at securing the complete removal of all live exporting of any animal and politics are leaning in that direction big time.

"It's appalling a trade can be cancelled on that basis and I think it means this government is not far from a ban on the live cattle trade."

The current Phase-out of Live Export consultation paper said the Australian Government had committed to phasing out live sheep exports by sea during the 2022 election campaign, as part of its Plan for Strengthening Animal Welfare.

"This is in recognition of community concern about the treatment of sheep during the export process," the consultation paper said.

During the 2019 election campaign then Labor agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said if Federal Labor was elected at the next election, it would implement a strategic Red Meat Industry Plan that included the phasing out of live sheep exports.

At the time Mr Fitzgibbon said his party believed a live export trade phase-out would take "not months but years, but it should not take anything like a decade".

Labor's position on live sheep exports was clarified at the same time as Animals Australia and RSPCA Australia each committed $500,000 toward a structural adjustment package for producers if the then Turnbull Liberal government pursued a phase-out of the trade using their commissioned report from Pegasus Economics as their supporting argument.

Australian Livestock Exporters Council chief executive officer Mark Harvey-Sutton said what many across the industry have been saying from the start was the policy was fundamentally flawed.

"Good policy needs to be based on facts," Mr Harvey-Sutton said.

"Where is the evidence to support this policy?

"The scientific facts support the industry and not the policy."

WA producers feel this is the latest in a string of moves made by the Federal Labor government in recent years that targets WA specifically and will have a significant effect on the entire agricultural industry.

WAFarmers president John Hassell spoke to Mr Watt at the NFF meeting last week, imploring him to change his mind on a policy that was not garnering them a significant following.

"I don't believe the government has a mandate to implement this policy as the minister has claimed plenty of times," Mr Hassell said.

"They did not get elected in 2019 on their first mention of the commitment to phase-out the live trade and they only got 33 per cent of the vote in the 2022 election, so that does not mean it is a mandate.

"I asked respectfully that they, like they have done with their superannuation policy and the electricity payment they have backed away from, change their mind on the live sheep export industry and let WA producers, exporters and stakeholders get on with the good, profitable, reasonable, reliable and ethical business in the manner in which we have been doing for a long time and consistently improving upon at every stage."

Mr Hassell said this was rejected by the minister who once again said they would not back down from this policy, which as evidence has shown is flawed in its very origins from an outdated report based on an animal activist agenda.