The National Farmers’ Federation has upped the ante in the fight to save WA’s live sheep trade, unveiling a billboard calling on Labor to “stop the ban” on one of Perth’s busiest roads this week.
The billboard was installed on Canning Highway in Como on Monday to coincide with a coming advertising blitz in The West Australian and other media outlets.
NFF President David Jochinke said the aim was to educate voters in marginal seats, including Tangney, to better understand the impact the ban would have on small farming communities.
“This policy is already hurting farmers. We’re already hearing accounts of farmers getting out of sheep because they don’t know what the future holds,” he said.
“What we’re seeing now is only the beginning. Shut down this trade and the whole future of WA’s $655 million Merino wool industry is dicey at best.”
The billboard will run for at least a week, with the lobby group considering erecting it in other battleground electorates including Swan and Hasluck in coming weeks.
Similar ads taking aim at other contentious policies including the Murray-Darling Basin water buyback plan have been plastered on billboards in other States as part of the NFF’s new Keep Farmers Farming campaign.
It comes as Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt plots his next move after a four-person consultation panel handed down its recommendations on how and when to phase out the $85 million live sheep trade in late October.
Senator Watt promised to release the report publicly but declined to reveal when.
The Perth ad features Borden farmer Jamie Spence, a grain grower and sheep producer in WA’s Great Southern, whose face is accompanied by a slogan calling on Canberra to “protect jobs in WA farming towns”.
Mr Spence said sheep farmers were already struggling with rock-bottom prices and ongoing backlogs at abattoirs and the Albanese Government’s policy would force himself and others to quit the industry.
“We can’t sell sheep to the market for a good price — young ewes which might have been $80 are now only getting $20,” he said.
“We currently send a portion of our sheep to the live sheep trade and if it’s banned, we feel we might not be able to keep operating our current sheep program.
“I urge the politicians in Canberra to rethink the decision.”
Mr Spence added that Australia had the highest standards governing the trade and banning it would be a “backward step for animal welfare”.
His comments were echoed by Mr Jochinke, who said the policy was based on an “outdated activist campaign”.
“If this was about animal welfare, you’d keep the trade going,” Mr Jochinke said.
“Australia is the gold standard for live sheep exports and if we vacate the field, we just make way for competitors with no regulation at all.”
Mr Jochinke said truck drivers, livestock agents, local schools and sporting clubs would be among those negatively impacted by a ban.
“This policy is about Canberra trying to win back green votes on the East Coast at the expense of jobs and livelihoods in WA,” he said.