Liberal MP Jason Wood calls for an end to the live export trade after deaths of 2400 sheep

AN OUTSPOKEN Turnbull Government MP is demanding an end to the “cruel and inhumane” live export trade.

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AN OUTSPOKEN Turnbull Government MP is demanding an end to the “cruel and inhumane” live export trade.

Victorian Liberal MP Jason Wood, who has campaigned on a series of animal welfare issues, has intervened in the debate after horror footage emerged from a voyage to the Middle East during which 2400 sheep died in sweltering and filthy conditions.

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Mr Wood told the Herald Sun he had been given reassurances that better care would be taken of animals on ships since he entered Parliament in 2004.

“This last one is so graphic and damning ... It’s telling me nothing has changed,” he said.

“When you have animals going on ships for three or four weeks, 60,000 sheep going to the Middle East, it’s just cruel and inhumane and it has to stop. It’s as simple as that.”

Mr Wood has joined former Turnbull Government minister Sussan Ley, who said this month that “enough is enough with these ships of shame” and that it was time to “pick a date by which all live sheep exports must end”.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has launched a review of sheep exports to the Middle East during the northern summer, after seeing footage of last year’s incident had left him “shocked and gutted”.

La Trobe MP Jason Wood is calling for a ban on live exports. Picture: Chris Eastman

“This is the livelihood of Australian farmers that are on that ship,” he said.

“This is their pride and joy, and this is total bulls*** that what I saw has taken place.”

Mr Wood, the La Trobe MP, is the chair of Parliament’s RSPCA friendship committee and has campaigned to ban cosmetic testing, poaching elephants and rhinos for their horn and ivory and hunters bringing home lion trophies.

He said he was supported by several colleagues in calling for an end to live exports, and argued a ban needed to be phased in and include compensation for affected farmers.

“I want the public to get behind it to make this push,” Mr Wood said.

“I’m getting a lot of comments from farmers who breed sheep, who love them and say that to see them treated in that way is ripping their heart out too.”

Labor agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon sad earlier this month that the Opposition wasn’t looking to ban live exports. But he added: “If you were starting again, would you have a live export trade, probably not.”

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