ALEC slams Labor MPs over incorrect live sheep export facts

ALEC CEO Mark Harvey-Sutton said the discussion gave a view into "the easily refuted arguments that the government will try and use to ban the trade" whenever the independent panel's report is released.

"The Government only had tired old talking points, some even citing examples from up to 40 years ago," he said.

"The truth is that the industry has reformed, and it is growing.

"In 2023 volumes were 30 percent higher than 2022, all while this policy has hung over the industry's head.

"We have also sent approximately 40,000 sheep to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2024 - a market that only reopened this year."

Among the examples cited by Labor MPs in parliament was a report compiled in 1985 by the Senate Select Committee on Animal Welfare which concluded "if a decision were to be made on the future of the trade purely on animal welfare grounds, there is enough evidence to stop the trade".

The report called for the federal government to promote and encourage the expansion of the chilled sheepmeat trade to the Middle East, with the eventual goal of phasing out live sheep exports.

However the same report also noted that the "animal welfare aspects of the trade cannot be divorced from economic and other considerations".

Mr Harvey-Sutton said the argument chilled meat would replace live exports was a fallacy.

"Many of our international trading partners already take chilled meat but remain our largest markets for live animals," he said.

"Ignoring their preferences and market demand is an arrogant position for Australia to take.

"Numerous strategically important trading partners in the Middle East have made representations to the government to this effect - yet they go unanswered.

"The government puts more at risk than international investment in agriculture with this attitude."

During the parliamentary debate Nationals MP for Nicholls Sam Birrell refuted suggestions by Labor MP for Adelaide Steve Georganas that Australia should build new abattoirs and export more chilled sheepmeat to the Middle East.

"It's not quite as simple as that," Mr Birrell said.

"The live sheep industry is sort of an overflow industry. When there's an abundance of sheep and the commodity prices line up, it's a very attractive market, but sometimes that doesn't happen.

"The upshot is-people who have analysed this say-that, if we did build an abattoir to try and take all of this extra meat processing on board, it would probably be closed for half of the year and would not be profitable."

In his contribution to the debate Labor MP for Makim Tony Zappia raised a number of live export incidents dating back to 1980, citing the recent MV Bahijah debacle as part of a "litany of failures".

The incidents ranged from ship fires aboard Farid Fares in 1980 and Uniceb in 1996, heat stress mortality incidents including the infamous Awassi Express August 2017 voyage and the 2019 sinking of Romanian live export vessel Queen Hind, which had no connection to the Australian live export industry.

Many, but not all, of the incidents referred to by Mr Zappia related on onboard mortalities.

The MV Bahijah voyage was below the reportable mortality rate.

Mr Harvey-Sutton criticised way MPs for "misrepresentations and half-truths aobut the animals onboard the Bahijah".

"It is also worth noting that this consignment included 5000 head of cattle," he said.

"A call for bans due to the Bahijah, means a ban on cattle too.

"Is this what this government really wants?

"If the government really wants to convince the Australian public, particularly the Western Australian public, of their reasons to ban the trade they will have to do better than standing up and reading activist talking points."