How the live sheep export ban impacted voting in WA

They had a cashed-up and vocal campaign - but did it deliver for the WA lobby group?

A concerted and cashed-up campaign from a Western Australian lobby group wanting to reverse the live sheep export ban appears to have failed to destabilise federal Labor, with the Albanese government securing an additional seat in WA.

Keep the Sheep declared war on the Albanese Government a year ago, saying the federal government was ignoring its modernisation of the trade that’s due to shut down on May 1, 2028.

KTS spokesman and National Farmers’ Federation vice president John Hassell he was “more than a little blown away” by the results in Tangney, Hasluck and the new electorate of Bullwinkel, which look set to fall Labor’s way.

Labor has also picked up the seat of Moore from the Liberal Party.

“Obviously Dutton was on the nose, this was Australia-wide. We were at polling booths across Australia,” Mr Hassell said.

In June last year, KTS said it would target the WA seats of Tangney, Hasluck and Bullwinkel, asking their constituents to support farmers and stand up for local towns and the state’s sheep industry.

But within just a few hours of the count underway, incumbent Tangney MP Sam Lim had secured almost a third of primary votes for Labor with more than half of polling stations’ votes finalised, and was well in front of his Liberal opponent Howard Ong in the preference count.

In Hasluck, Labor’s Tania Lawrence – who previously held the seat on a comfortable margin of 10 per cent – was well ahead of the Liberal Party’s candidate David Goode, with 68.43 per cent of the projected two candidate preferred vote.

In Bullwinkel, Labor’s Trish Cook was a whisker in front of the Liberal Party’s Matt Moran, but well ahead in primary votes.

Mr Hassell said KTS handed how-to-vote cards at each of the electorates, and said any swing against federal Labor would be seen as a win.

“I think we had an effect,” he said.

The lobby group drew in hundreds of thousands in donations to help unseat Labor.

But as of almost 11pm (AEST), Labor had retained all of its nine WA seats, taken Moore off the Liberal Party’s Ian Goodenough, who defected to the crossbench after losing preselection early last year – and was in with a chance in Bullwinkel.