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

There hasn't been a lot of good news for Western Australian sheep farmers over the last 12 months, I have to say. Over the summer period, when many of them visit the coastal areas in my electorate like Albany, Bremer Bay, Esperance, where I managed to catch up with many of those farmers, the lack of confidence in the industry was palpable. Many of those farmers I spoke to were talking about having to head home next week or in the next fortnight to load the last truckload of sheep off their properties. What people don't understand is that the sheep industry is competing for acres against the cropping industry. While the cropping industry across my electorate in Western Australia has had a great season and things are going well, the government has smashed the confidence in the sheep industry. Many of those farmers expressed the view: 'If the government hate us and if they hate our industry then why would I stick around? Why would I put in the hard yards?'

There was one bit of good news and one bit of light on the horizon for Western Australian sheep growers when a delegation from the Kingdom of Morocco arrived in Perth on Monday. I had a day's leave from the parliament to meet them and to make the introductions. Morocco is a wonderful country of 38 million people in the north-west of Africa. They've suffered many years of drought. They have basically consumed their breeding flock for their own use and are here in Australia to buy the best sheep product that the world can supply, and I was very proud to be part of that process.

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