Minister promotes RSPCA survey

Mr Watt posted a tweet on June 23 retweeting an RSPCA survey that said seven in 10 Western Australians want live export to end.

"Very interesting research released this week from @RSPCA showing 70 per cent of Western Australians support the Albanese Government's policy to phase out live sheep exports. Consultation is ongoing as to how and when we implement the policy. Have your say...'' Mr Watt tweeted.

By Tuesday, the tweet has since been viewed 86,700 times, been retweeted by 145 people, quoted by 16 people and has 377 likes.

However, those in support of the live sheep export industry in WA dispute the poll findings, saying the facts show the live sheep export industry has public support.

According to both the State and Federal opposition parties, more than 12,500 people signed two recent petitions in support of the industry and data from a national survey of more than 4500 people conducted by CSIRO affiliate, Voconiq, showed larger scale support for the industry was growing.

RSPCA Australia representative said the organisation's survey of 800 people was conducted by McCrindle research between May 8-11.

"This survey collected data on whether someone was from a 'metro' or 'regional' area so isn't broken down any further than that," they said.

"Previous surveys have gone into more detail."

The RSPCA said this recent survey found 71 per cent of WA residents support the Federal government's policy to phase out live sheep export by sea.

The survey asked participants four questions:

1. The Federal government is planning to phase out live sheep exports from Australia by sea. Do you support this policy?

2. Do you think the government should support farmers and others in the supply chain to transition out of live sheep exports?

3. How long do you think it should take to phase out live sheep exports? 1-2 years, 2-4 years or longer than 4 years.

4. In the next Federal election, would you be more inclined to vote for a candidate who supported a phase out of live sheep exports?

In response to Mr Watt's tweet one user replied:

"Ok let's get real here. 800 people surveyed, 0.028 per cent of the population of WA. Of those only 38.25pc definitely want to ban sheep live exports. Which is 0.011pc of the population of WA.

"307 people said yes, 263 said maybe, 230 said no way."

RSPCA Australia chief executive officer Richard Mussell was called to retract statements he made to Sheep Central which criticised Voconiq's research into community sentiment about the live export industry, which was mis-labelled a push poll and described LiveCorp as 'live export lobbyists' - a claim that has since been removed from the RSPCA's website, but not publicly retracted.

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LiveCorp chairman Troy Setter said the claim was a slight on both LiveCorp and Voconiq, the independent company that carries out the research.

"As a rural research and development corporation, LiveCorp is not allowed to operate in the agri-political space," Mr Setter said.

"We take that very seriously and object in the strongest terms to accusations made by RSPCA, which is clearly active in the activist and lobbying space itself.

"Our role is to provide objective and factual information to industry and stakeholders and LiveCorp commissioned this project in 2019."

Voconiq produces a comprehensive public report after each survey and the most recent report summarised the third national survey of about 4500 Australians, providing an analysis of trends over time.

"Participants are recruited from an online panel, agreeing to the survey before knowing the topic," Mr Setter said.

"They are then provided information about who is funding the work and how the data's going to be used - a key tenant of ethical research practice.

"LiveCorp stands by the independence of the approach used by Voconiq and the results it has delivered and calls on RSPCA to retract the false statements."

The results of the Voconiq report, "Live exports and the Australian Community 2019-2021, a national program of community sentiment research", have shown community sentiment is growing in support of live export.

Mr Setter said during Senate Estimates last month the results of the research showed a lot of people were not aware of live export or not engaged in it.

"They either don't care or don't get information," Mr Setter said.

"You have to take that into account with the data and the information.

"When asked if farming communities would suffer economic hardship should the live export industry discontinue, those that agreed in 2019 were 67 per cent.

"Those that agreed in 2023 are 78pc.

"We asked participants whether live exports should be stopped regardless of the impact on farmers.

"Just under one third agreed with that in 2023.

"The numbers have certainly improved on that.

"We asked questions about conditions for animals on live export ships not being in line with Australian standards.

"In 2019, we had 53pc.

"Now in 2023, there has been a 14pc improvement to 39pc."