Leyonhjelm: Double standard over Troy Grant’s sheep in car boot photo

Mr Grant was fined $325 and lost four demerit points after reporting himself for holding a mobile phone while behind the wheel of his car, after stopping on a country road to take a photograph of a sheep sitting in the back of another vehicle.

The NSW Nationals MP - who stepped down as party leader after his government did a spectacular backflip on its ban of the greyhound racing industry in NSW amid public outrage at animal welfare concerns - published the picture on Twitter, on March 17.

“Heading home on the Newell stopped at upgrade works and then saw this. A ewe in the back out on a Saturday drive!” the Dubbo MP Tweeted.

After coming clean reporting himself to the police, Mr Grant said the incident served as a “massive reminder” that nobody was above the law - even if you’re the Police Minister.

“I didn't know that what I was doing was against the law, I was stationary,” he said.

But Senator Leyonhjelm said it was ironic the Nationals’ politician who wanted to impose a total ban on the NSW greyhound racing industry over animal welfare concerns wasn’t moved to speak-out about the well-being of the lone sheep, discovered in the back of the car he’d photographed.

He said while the sheep appeared to be unharmed and there was “nothing to really get too outraged about”, there was a “double-standard”, given how images of sheep being placed into car boots in Middle Eastern live export markets, are often reported and interpreted.

“Most of the outrage we see of incidents from the Middle East involving Australian sheep in live export markets has an element of racism to it,” he said.

“It’s brown people doing bad things.

“People see the images taken by the animal activists of sheep going into the boot of a car in Kuwait or Qatar or wherever and they think it’s a bad thing because brown people are doing it.

“If this had of happened in the Middle East there would be some kind of outrage because it would be brown people taking the sheep home and people would assume they were going to inflict some form of cruelty on it.”

Senator Leyonhjelm said the vehicle Mr Grant was driving had also stopped and it should not be an offence to use a mobile telephone when a car is stationary.

“He’s also a dickhead for dobbing himself in,” he said.

Animals Australia – which has continually campaigned for a total ban on live exports after exposing images of sheep being placed in car boots during the Middle East’s religious festival of Eid - has not commented on Mr Grant’s photograph, while RSPCA Australia has been contacted for comment.