Live Export
The Labor Party went to the 2019 election with a policy to put an end to the northern summer live sheep trade at the first opportunity and phase out the balance of trade while helping sheep meat producers make the transition to more domestic processing.
Despite our best efforts, it took the live export industry to voluntarily ban live exports during the northern hemisphere summer for the Liberal Government to finally legislate a ban.
And now they plan to spend $2.2 million of taxpayers’ money on a research project in an attempt to work around the scientific conclusions of its own reviews of the live sheep trade.
The Government has gone from ignoring the science to fighting the science.
After investing in five costly reports including one by an Independent Heat Stress Risk Assessment Technical Reference Panel, the Government wants industry to invent a dehumidification machine to beat the wet bulb test which the experts say is the right measure of animal welfare.
The $2.2 million should be used to help sheep farmers make the transition to domestic processing and higher value product markets. That’s more jobs in Australia.
Whilst the Labor Party will be reviewing a number of our policies, we will continue to listen to the science and the concerns of the electorate with regard to live sheep exports.
I encourage you to share your concerns with the Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud at Minister.Littleproud@agriculture.gov.au.