Election 2022: Labor triggers Mark McGowan revolt over live-trade

Mark McGowan has pushed back against federal Labor’s plan to phase out the $250m live sheep export trade.

WA Premier Mark McGowan. Picture: NCA NewsWire / James Gourley

Mark McGowan has pushed back against federal Labor’s plan to phase out the $250m live sheep export trade, declaring that measures enforced under his industry crackdown were “effective and appropriate”.

The popular Western Australia Labor premier, who hosted Anthony Albanese’s campaign launch in Perth on Sunday, said suspending exports across the northern summer and introducing better vet checks and monitoring had “worked pretty well”.

Mr McGowan’s intervention weeks out from the May 21 election came after opposition trade spokeswoman Madeleine King confirmed federal Labor would support sheep farmers’ transition away from live exports due to waning demand and welfare concerns.

The concession came after three years of Labor failing to outline whether it would carry over Bill Shorten’s 2019 election policy to phase-out the WA-dominated live sheep export trade.

The Australian can reveal the Coalition will use the Labor policy to win votes in WA, where it is battling to hold on to the seats of Swan, Pearce and Hasluck.

Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud said Labor’s plan to phase out live sheep exports was a “hammer blow” for farmers and would cost jobs.

“If they shut down live sheep, they will come after cattle next,” Mr Littleproud told The ­Australian.

“When Labor say they want to shut down this vital industry, what they’re really saying is that they’re happy to shut down a trade which is over 90 per cent Western Australian. This is bad for jobs, bad for businesses, bad for livelihoods and bad for our agricultural industry.”

Ms King on Thursday said while Labor would not repeat its disastrous shutdown of the $1.35bn live cattle industry, the sheep trade was in “decline”.

“We are not putting a timeline on it at all – that’s not a fair thing to do,” Ms King said.

“The farmers of Western Australia that participate in this trade know very well the trade depends on the social licence from the Western Australian people.

“We saw desperately cruel imagery and I really want to acknowledge the work that has gone on in the intervening three to four years to address this.

“Despite that important work, the industry is in decline. We will not put our head in the sand and ignore these people and these jobs. They need an alternative and it doesn’t need a timeline, it needs thoughtful responses to an industry in decline so the people aren’t left behind.”

Ms King said federal Labor believed the sheep export industry, which exports an average two million head of sheep each year, would “of itself phase out” and wanted to support workers impacted by the decline.

After WA Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan on Thursday flagged a phase-out of live sheep exports by 2030, Mr McGowan later said measures he put in place to improve the sector had worked.

“We put in place rules that required a suspension of exports over the northern summer because of the shocking outcomes that were occurring, particularly in the summer months up in the Persian Gulf. I think that measure worked pretty well,” Mr McGowan said.

“And I think it’s widely accepted and then there was additional vet checks and additional monitoring put in place on some of the ships. I think those measures are effective and I think they’re appropriate.”

Asked if he had urged federal Labor to drop the proposed ban on live sheep exports, Mr McGowan said: “I think the measures that are in place are appropriate at this point in time.”

With the livestock export industry supporting 10,000 jobs across Australia, Mr Littleproud said: “Labor smashed West Australians with a mining tax and now they want to do the same with a hit on one of your most important exports.

“When they were last in government they shut down the live cattle trade to Indonesia overnight and the Australian taxpayer is still paying the price for that reckless act,” he said.