The economic cost of the trade ban to the Upper Great Southern region is estimated to range over $470 million.
Popularity for the Keep the Sheep activist group continues to grow, says the movement’s spokesman Paul Brown.
Brown’s industry is on the brink after the Albanese Labor government passed legislation to ban the live sheep export trade from May 2028.
“The way they [the federal government] rushed it through the House of Representatives and the Senate shows you that in our conversations with the Minister [for Agriculture Murray Watt] and the prime minister, we got no support from them,” he told The Epoch Times.
“They’re not about animal welfare. It was purely about votes on the east coast and supporting their voter base.”
A petition for Keep the Sheep has reached 71,000 signatures and received $440,000 in donations.
The move to ban live sheep exports comes after a 2018 report by 60 Minutes showed hundreds of malnourished and dying sheep aboard the Awassi Express vessel en route to the Middle East.
The industry has never fully recovered since with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) among the leading groups condemning the trade.
In a statement on May 30, the group said 80 percent of independent observer reports from recent live sheep export voyages say livestock were starved, and at least 60 percent reported animal suffering with signs of heat stress.
An Econisis report published in May estimated that the economic impacts of a trade ban on WA’s Upper Great Southern economy, a major live export hub, would range from $474.9 million to $791.5 million in present value terms over 20 years.
Higher Standards Welcomed if it Means Keeping Trade Going
Brown says he told the now-former Agriculture Minister Watt that animal welfare practices in the live sheep trade—the majority of which travel from Western Australia to the Middle East—were never better.
“His only claims are that it’s a ‘declining industry’ worth only $80 million,” Brown said.
“We don’t think that is a worthy description. Any industry that’s making money legally and meeting the regulations that the regulator puts in front of us is worth continuing,” he said.
Brown said he and his peers welcomed higher standards if it meant keeping the trade alive.
“We said to them [the federal government] that in the first instance, they should raise the bar and increase the regulations and standards,” he said.
“Then, if we’re not able to meet them, we should be penalised. But while we’re able to meet and beat the standards of regulations put in front of us by the regulator, then how can we be considered not worthy of continuation?”
In 2022, four years after the 60 Minutes report, the RSPCA was still unsatisfied with the industry’s efforts to improve its animal welfare processes.
“Live sheep that are exported from Australia suffer. Subjected to extremely hot temperatures that exceed their physiological tolerance, many sheep suffer from heat stress,” the organisation said.
“Sheep are exposed to poor handling conditions, and stocking densities that prevent them from comfortably lying down to rest at the same time, or easily accessing food or water.
“Confined to pens where they eat, sleep, urinate, and defecate, live export sheep are also exposed to the risk of disease and infection.”
Yet Keep the Sheep says the recommendations made in the 2018 McCarthy Review have been largely followed.
The report listed better space allocation, ventilation and heat stress management, automated livestock watering systems, and recording of panting and heat-stress scores, among other things.
“We’ve had onboard heat evaluation and stress management. We’ve had increases in space allocation,” Brown said.
“So, shipments are now leaving Australia with much fewer sheep since those changes.
“And we measure wool going onto the vessels by the millimetre. That way they’re not subject to greater stress levels. These are all standards that the department has put in front of us.”
Export Ban Applauded by Four Paws Australia
Meanwhile, Four Paws Australia celebrated the Senate’s passing of the Export Control Amendment (Ending Live Sheep Exports by Sea) Bill 2024 on July 2.
The animal welfare activist organisation said enshrining the ban into law was a big win for Australian sheep.
“Ending the live sheep export trade aligns with modern community expectations on how animals should be treated, not just in Australia but on a global scale,” national director for Four Paws Australia, Rebecca Linigen, said in a statement.
“Despite attempts from a small section of the industry to keep this brutal trade going, it has been clear for many years that the era of live sheep export was over.”