Peak rural transport bodies warn the trucking industry will face a heavy financial impact if live sheep exports are phased-out and could even face additional harassment from animal activists.
The Livestock and Rural Transport Association of Western Australia (LRTWA) and the Australian Livestock and Rural Transport Association (ALRTA) have both put forward submissions to the independent panel tasked with creating a road map for the phase-out.
The ALRTA submission raises concerns that lobby groups pushing for the removal of the live sheep trade will move on to another target once the phase-out is complete.
"ALRTA is concerned that giving ground on live sheep exports by sea, especially when the trade has demonstrably improved under better regulation, will embolden extreme animal activists who will have succeeded in destroying an industry regardless of its actual animal welfare performance," it said.
"Australian livestock producers, transporters, handlers and processors will likely be subject to increased trespassing, harassment and disruption in the hope that a similar outcome can be achieved across the entire livestock supply chain."
Read also:
LRTWA chief executive Jan Cooper said removing the live sheep trade would have a significant impact on some of its members.
"For some of them it will affect them quite badly, the estimates are about a 30 to 40 per cent hit to their bottom line," Ms Cooper said.
"I think what's not well understood is that sheep that are destined for the live export trade get transported quite a few times in their lifetime as compared to sheep that are destined for the domestic market, so there's a lot of that activity that would be immediately removed for rural transporters.
"The other side of it is it's not only the livestock that are being transported but a lot of our members are transporting hay, fodder and pellets to feedlots and for the ships, so that part of it would also be removed."
Ms Cooper said there were concerns that it could even drive some businesses to close or downscale
"We did a survey of our members and a number of them came back and said that they would have to put drivers off and sell equipment," she said.
"We have collaborated with the broader livestock industries in WA, the export associations, The Livestock Collective, the Pastoralists' and Graziers' Association of WA, WAFarmers, the shearers' association - we joined together and made a joint verbal submission to the panel and got a good hearing from the panel.
"We got a lot of our points across but, of course, the terms of reference for the panel don't include looking at the merits of the decision, so that is somewhat of a frustration for people because there's no forum to vent our displeasure properly."
A recent Senate Estimates committee heard that during 2022 there were 15 single species live export voyages and 10 multispecies voyages.
For 2023 until the end of March, there had been seven single species voyages and four multispecies voyages out of the port of Fremantle.
LiveCorp chairman Troy Setter said of the live export ships out of Fremantle over the past two years, 7pc were sheep only, while 32pc had been a mix of sheep and cattle.
"Seventy five per cent of sheep ships going to the Middle East have cattle on them as well," Mr Setter said.
"A total of roughly 80pc of all ships have cattle on them.
"Most of those voyages only work for cattle because they've got dual species on them.
"Those markets need a mix of sheep and cattle.
"They are often multiport discharge.
"There has been a move by some of those Middle Eastern countries to take more cattle and a concentrated effort by Australian exporters to open up more cattle markets.
"It would not be economically viable, from my experience, formerly when I was an exporter, for most of those markets to take a part-loaded cattle ship or a small cattle ship.
"They need sheep."
