Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

Last Saturday, Minister Watt advised Western Australian farmers and live-sheep exporters the budget would contain a—totally inadequate—$107 million phase-out transition package. I say: keep the sheep. This Labor government is at odds with the WA Labor Premier, Roger Cook, and his agriculture minister, Jackie Jarvis. As proud Western Australians, they say: keep the sheep. Minister Watt is being deceptive when he says cattle won't be next. Former Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association boss Tracey Hayes called out the PM on Labor's failure to compensate cattle exporters in his speech at last week's Beef Australia 2024. Cattle farmers and exporters agree: keep the sheep. The Animal Justice Party this week stated:

We are proud that the AJP could deliver the knockout blow by demanding the end of live sheep export as a requirement for our preferences at the Dunkley By-election in March. Ongoing conversations behind-the-scenes between AJP and Labor leadership has helped to finetune government policy.

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We are already in deep preference negotiations with major parties for the upcoming federal election, laser-focused on:

A re-elected coalition government will reverse Labor's live export ban plan. We may not be able to change this government's policy, so it's time to change the government #keepthesheep.

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