Fatima Payman (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in the Senate, Minister McCarthy. Over the winter break, I visited regional sheep farms and spoke to sheep farmers who have grave concerns about the live sheep export phase-out package. One of those sheep farmers was Judith, from Wandering shire, who stressed to me the lack of support from the government to outline exactly what comes after the end of live sheep export. These are towns of generational sheep farmers that rely solely on this industry, and now they are being asked to transition out of it with no detail on what's to come next. Judith asked me, 'Transition to what?'

We have transition packages for coal mining communities, where it's detailed exactly what they are transitioning to, but that is not the case in this package. So, on behalf of Judith and all WA sheep farmers and communities, I ask the minister: transition to what?