Live sheep ban just the start: McCormack

The anti-farmer Federal Labor Government has today effectively banned the export of live sheep and will now turn its attention to phasing out other industries involving animals.

 “This is just the start of it,” said Federal Member for Riverina Michael McCormack after the Parliament voted 89-54 to end the live sheep trade by 2028.

 “Labor teamed up with its old mate the Greens, as well as the Teals, to end what has been and is a viable industry.”

 Wagga Wagga-based Australian Livestock and Property Agents Association president Peter Cabot recently described the decision to ban the trade as “the worst decision in agriculture that I’ve ever heard of.”

 “It’s going to have a detrimental effect to the price of sheep in Australia,” Mr Cabot said.

 Mr McCormack told Parliament this week he feared the cattle industry and horse and dog racing would be targeted next for closure.

 “When Labor, through a kneejerk reaction to a television program on the national broadcaster, shut down our live cattle trade in mid-2011, the cattle prices at Wagga Wagga slumped the next week,” McCormack said.

 “That's because they were fearful – and markets are driven by fear and greed. There were concerns that cattle from the northern part of Australia would end up in our saleyards, end up in our abattoirs and end up competing with the prices of our locally produced cattle in the Riverina.

 “It's not too distant to say – and my local stock and station agents are already saying this – that a shutdown of the trade in the west will affect our markets in the east.

 “It will affect our markets in Wagga Wagga.

 “Just last December, because of any number of factors, sheep were selling for a dollar a head in the Wagga Wagga saleyards.

 “Imagine trying to make a buck when your sheep are being sold for just a dollar.

 “It doesn't even bear thinking about how much it cost you to transport those sheep to the yards, let alone paying the agents and all the rest.”

 The Government, in its recent Budget, allocated $107 million to West Australia industry participants to shut down live sheep exports. Mr McCormack described this as paying farmers to stop farming.

 Mr McCormack noted that the Member for Curtin Kate Chaney said she would vote to end the live export yet then voted against it.

 “Obviously people power in her electorate convinced her banning the trade was not a good thing,” Mr McCormack said.

 “We will, when next in Government, restore this valuable industry which is worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the Australian economy.”

ENDS