Forget politics and start listening

In the live sheep export by sea debate, accusations of cruelty are flung about by the radical animal activist organisations like confetti, and are effectively endorsed by the current Federal Minister for Agriculture Murray Watt when he talks about the loss of social licence and continues with the proposed ban without consideration for the thousands of families whose livelihoods are at stake.

Accusing the live sheep industry - an industry with the highest animal welfare standards in the world - of cruelty is not just spreading a falsehood.

It is not just a lucrative lie propagated by the animal activists (remember they raise big money from the pictures of animal cruelty they pay for).

These accusations and the policy response from the Labor government have real world impacts.

If only Mr Watt and the radical activist groups looked in the mirror every once in a while, they would realise what they are doing actually amounts to real cruelty to our farmers and others in the industry.

What Mr Watt is doing to thousands of families across Western Australia is nothing short inflicting economic vandalism and mental anguish upon everyone in the sheep supply chain.

The cloud of uncertainty over an industry, including withholding the report into how and when the industry will be ended - which has now been hidden for months - has destroyed confidence in a great Western Australian industry and undermined hope in the future.

Labor's pledge to end the live sheep trade has placed a sword of Damocles over everyone involved in the sheep industry - from the transporters and agronomists to the vets and farmers.

The Labor government's phase-out will cost thousands of jobs across the supply chain.

It will take hundreds of millions of dollars out of the regional economy of Western Australia.

It will damage, perhaps even destroy, long-term international trading relationships - especially those in the Middle East - that support not only the sheep industry but also other parts of agriculture such as the grain sector.

By staying silent in the face of activist lies about the conditions on the MV Bahijah, Mr Watt added to the uncertainty that every WA sheep producer and every other associated industry feels.

These activist groups boast about the role they played in the ban on the live cattle trade in 2011 under the Labor Gillard government - a ban which caused more than $1 billion in damages and undermined Australia's reputation with our international trading partners.

In the midst of a dry summer, farmers are faced with horrible choices: risk economic harm to their business and families by continuing to feed sheep that are worth almost nothing or start killing the animals they have put their heart and soul into raising.

No one ever said farming was easy. Few great things are.

But a minister who has sided with the radical activists, undermined industry confidence and threatened the very livelihoods of thousands of families, deserves condemnation for the pain that he has inflicted.

State Labor is no better.

Premier Roger Cook and WA Agriculture and Food Minister Jackie Jarvis claim to support the live export trade, but what have they actually done to fight for it?

They were quick to call for delays to Federal Labor's environmental law changes when they realised how politically toxic they were in WA.

And Federal Labor has delayed (though not shelved) its plans.

But on live exports - silence.

The unique geographic and climatic nature of WA are what make the live export trade fundamental to the sheep industry's future.

Livestock numbers on farm must be reduced significantly before the summer because the risk of feed shortages is ever on the horizon.

The live export trade was both a price floor, but also a safety value, for stock in such seasons.

It allows the industry to operate at a viable scale to help prevent tragedies like the one that has unfolded in the past six months.

This issue is not an abstract policy discussion.

The live export debate is about real people, real lives and real livelihoods.

It is about real human suffering,

Minister it is time to start listening.

Time to start listening.