Furious Western Australian farmers and exporters have vowed to overturn a ban on live sheep exports, due to start in May 2028.
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00:00 Fourth generation sheep farmer Peter Reid has seen some tough seasons.
00:06 But a looming ban on live exports will be his biggest challenge by far.
00:10 There's a lot of anger out here in the bush about what's happening.
00:14 We feel like we haven't been spoken to or consulted about this.
00:18 The Federal Government has announced Australia will no longer export live sheep from May
00:22 2028.
00:23 A $107 million transition package will help businesses in the supply chain to adapt.
00:30 At the moment the abattoirs are at full capacity.
00:32 No one's interested in building new abattoirs.
00:35 The Federal Coalition has vowed to overturn the ban if it wins the next election.
00:41 We're going to be targeting labour and making sure that people understand what the industry
00:49 contributes to the economy and how it is a sustainable trade for the future.
00:54 Fighting this is what we need to do.
00:57 Transition is not an option.
00:58 The Federal Government promised to phase out live sheep exports at the last election and
01:03 says anything less would be a broken promise.
01:06 So unfortunately for the industry I think they really lost the community some time ago
01:10 and government is frankly catching up.
01:13 The number of live sheep being shipped overseas has fallen steadily for two decades while
01:18 exports of chilled meat have risen.
01:21 The Agriculture Minister wants WA to focus on onshore processing facilities, which he
01:26 says will create more jobs.
01:28 The funding that we've provided will obviously go towards helping sheep producers adjust
01:33 and the whole supply chain, the truckies, the shearers, everyone involved in the industry.
01:37 But a lot of the money is also dedicated to building up that processing capacity.
01:41 Proposition that the Minister's put forward that chilled or live meat is going to be the
01:46 white knight is farcical.
01:48 The decision also sets up a showdown between the Federal and WA Labor Governments.
01:53 Premier Roger Cook warning the ban will cost 400 jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars.
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