WA farmers and exporters furious over ban on live sheep exports

Furious Western Australian farmers and exporters have vowed to overturn a ban on live sheep exports, due to start in May 2028.

Transcript

00:00 Fourth generation sheep farmer Peter Reid has seen some tough seasons.

00:06 But a looming ban on live exports will be his biggest challenge by far.

00:10 There's a lot of anger out here in the bush about what's happening.

00:14 We feel like we haven't been spoken to or consulted about this.

00:18 The Federal Government has announced Australia will no longer export live sheep from May

00:22 2028.

00:23 A $107 million transition package will help businesses in the supply chain to adapt.

00:30 At the moment the abattoirs are at full capacity.

00:32 No one's interested in building new abattoirs.

00:35 The Federal Coalition has vowed to overturn the ban if it wins the next election.

00:41 We're going to be targeting labour and making sure that people understand what the industry

00:49 contributes to the economy and how it is a sustainable trade for the future.

00:54 Fighting this is what we need to do.

00:57 Transition is not an option.

00:58 The Federal Government promised to phase out live sheep exports at the last election and

01:03 says anything less would be a broken promise.

01:06 So unfortunately for the industry I think they really lost the community some time ago

01:10 and government is frankly catching up.

01:13 The number of live sheep being shipped overseas has fallen steadily for two decades while

01:18 exports of chilled meat have risen.

01:21 The Agriculture Minister wants WA to focus on onshore processing facilities, which he

01:26 says will create more jobs.

01:28 The funding that we've provided will obviously go towards helping sheep producers adjust

01:33 and the whole supply chain, the truckies, the shearers, everyone involved in the industry.

01:37 But a lot of the money is also dedicated to building up that processing capacity.

01:41 Proposition that the Minister's put forward that chilled or live meat is going to be the

01:46 white knight is farcical.

01:48 The decision also sets up a showdown between the Federal and WA Labor Governments.

01:53 Premier Roger Cook warning the ban will cost 400 jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars.

01:59 [BLANK_AUDIO]