Coalition candidates fight to stymie live-sheep trade ban

WA Coalition candidates are campaigning against federal Labor’s electoral promise to phase out live-sheep exports within five years.

Both Nationals and Liberal Party candidates in the West Australian electorate that sends the majority of Australia’s live sheep to the Middle East are campaigning strongly against federal Labor’s electoral promise to phase out live sheep export within five years.

The vast electorate of O’Connor, one of three rural seats in WA, is likely to be most affected by the export ban, which Liberal-­Nationals candidates say would put a large dent in the state’s $550 million sheep industry. They say it would jeopardise jobs in a chain that starts on the farm and ends at Fremantle wharf.

Nationals candidate for O’Connor and local farmer John Hassell says Labor’s plans would come at a steep cost for all sheep producers, not just those involved in the live export trade. “It will ­destabilise a $550m industry and harm regional employment while (the) live export market contributes around $200m to the WA economy,” he said.

Mr Hassell, who raises sheep near the WA rural towns of Pingelly and Wickepin in the electorate, is standing against incumbent Liberal MP Rick Wilson.

In March, Mr Wilson organised a “Live Export Roadshow” to promote the live animal trade, inviting veterinarian Holly Ludeman as a guest speaker. Ms Ludeman is the compliance officer for Emanuel Export, the company that lost its export licence last year after footage showing dead and dying sheep on the Awassi Express livestock ship was aired on national TV.

She is also spearheading a pro-trade campaign called The Sheep Collective, which says it is winning back respect for the trade after the Awassi debacle by supporting major reforms to the industry.

On his website, Mr Wilson describe­d the roadshow’s aim as highlighting the “grave threat” to the industry. “Around 1.5 million sheep are exported from Western Australia every year, with the vast majority sourced from my electorate of O’Connor,” he said.

“I’ve been working hard to make sure the concerns of WA farmers, stock agents, livestock transporters and feed manufacturers are heard in Canberra.”

Figures from state Labor Agriculture Minister Alannah Mac­Tiernan’s office show that the percentage of animals exported from WA farms has declined steeply from 4.22 million head, or 17 per cent, in 2000 to less than two million in 2017. It dropped to less than one million head, or 7 per cent, in 2018.

Last year’s lower figure was partly due to a self-imposed export industry halt to exporting during the hottest summer months, as a response to the high number of heat-related deaths of 2700 sheep aboard the Awassi Express the previous summer.

Unlike its federal counterpart, the WA Labor government is not calling for a ban on live sheep export­ but is instead seeking improvements in export standards.

Mr Hassell said that high mortalit­y rates and heat stress problems on board livestock ships “can be sorted out”.