00:00The federal government says, actually, we took this to two elections. The industry,
00:06it says, has been dogged by allegations and revelations of animal cruelty actually for
00:12decades now. Arguably, the most infamous was that footage from the Awasi Express back in
00:172018, which aired on national television. It was undercover footage of sheep dying in
00:22heat stress. Conditions, Jo, have dramatically improved since then. But Labor argues, well,
00:30we still took this to two elections, 2019 and 2022. Now, this has triggered some fiery
00:37debate in Parliament last night and today. The Prime Minister was asked about it in question
00:41time earlier.
00:42The truth is that the live sheep industry has been in decline compared with the sheep
00:55meat industry that's valued around about $4 billion and has expanded substantially
01:05in places like the United Kingdom.
01:09And so how significant is this trade to the WA economy?
01:12Well, we actually heard the Prime Minister in question time kind of trying to play down
01:17the significance of the trade to the economy, saying it's worth about $80 million. And in
01:22fact, we're offering them $107 million as a transition package. But the WA Labor government
01:29disagrees. It says it's worth more than $120 million. And the Premier, Roger Cook, says
01:36the government should stump up more funds.
01:39We believe that this will have a detrimental impact on the industry. It will see the loss
01:43of jobs. And that's the very clear message that we've put forward to the federal government.
01:47We also know that WA farmers are incredibly resilient. They deal with adversity day in,
01:52day out. And in relation to this particular measure, these laws which have now passed
01:57the Parliament, we know that they'll be able to adapt to those as well.
02:01And what have farmers had to say?
02:03Well, we've seen the creation of this group calling themselves Keep the Sheep. It's a
02:08delegation of industry representatives, everything from exporters, shearers, farmers. And they're
02:14vowing to basically make federal Labor pay for this decision. They say they've raised
02:19hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they're going to use it to campaign against Labor
02:23in marginal seats in WA. The industry is calling the federal government's transition package
02:30a drop in the ocean, says it doesn't go far enough. Here's Livestock Export Council's
02:36Mark Harvey-Sutton.
02:39The Western Australian government said it costs $128 million per year for 10 years to
02:45transition out of this industry. That's over a billion dollars. There's no way $107 million
02:50is enough. We don't want the money. What we actually want is to keep our industry. What
02:57we know is to have a viable sheep production sector in Western Australia, you need the
03:01live export industry, you need the processing sector, and you need wool production.
03:08So Joe, I don't think we've heard the last of this debate. You've got this farming group
03:12vowing to campaign against Labor, and you've got the Coalition saying that if it's elected,
03:17it will overturn the ban. So they're making it an election issue.
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