WA farmer makes plea to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to ‘stop ignoring’ live sheep export industry

Farmers in WA have declared an all-out war against Anthony Albanese, promising him they will take every Labor seat across the State if he fails to listen to their impassioned pleas. The furious group of farmers, a number of whom rely on the in-jeopardy live sheep export industry, promised to run a targeted campaign to flip the five Federal seats in WA that are currently held by the Albanese Government and Curtin MP Kate Chaney if the Prime Minister fails to meet farmers face-to-face in Perth next month. “We want to be able to send the message loud and clear. I want to look him in the eye and get him to realise that we’re deadly bloody serious because he’s treating farmers with contempt,” WAFarmers Federation president John Hassell told The West Australian. “It’s not based on science. It’s not based on sensibility. It’s not based on people having fresh food where they live. It’s straight-out politics and on that basis, we’re going to have to fight it the same way. “We’re going to keep on very strongly opposing it. We’ve got five seats here that we can turn over and we’ll have a bloody good crack at it if they don’t come to the party. If they reverse the decision, we’ll back off on any plans to target the marginal seats.” Farmers across WA called on Mr Albanese to “stop ignoring” the industry and making decisions without understanding the impacts his policy will have on their livelihoods. Mr Albanese has gone to the past two Federal elections pledging to end the live sheep export trade if he was elected in the country’s top job. This came after about 2400 sheep died on a ship from Fremantle to the Middle East in 2017. However, the industry argues it has turned itself around with the mortality rates of live sheep being less than 1 per cent. The Prime Minister is due to head to Perth next month for a Cabinet trip which is when the farmers are expecting a meeting. One farmer who said she felt unheard by Mr Albanese is sheep producer Ellen Walker, whose Brookton property has been in her family for 60 years. She still lives on the property with her partner, dogs and three girls and said the doubts surrounding the trade had left her family fearing they’d one day not be able to put food on the table. “He doesn’t have a clue (about the industry). He’s made these election promises and then he’s either hidden from them because they’re too big and scary, or he’s palmed them off to his ministers so they are the ones that have to do the work,” Ms Walker said. “They need to grow some balls and say, we are phasing this out or we aren’t phasing this out and give us some certainty so that we can make some decisions going forward. “What else do we need to do to prove that we can stay in this business in the long run and provide food security for other countries? We’re cutting off the food supply to people that buy a lot of barley from us? What’s the flow-on effects of that?” Ms Walker, 41, also offered a direct message to Mr Albanese: “Talk to us so you understand why we need this industry and stop ignoring us in making decisions without fully understanding their impact.” Mr Hassell echoed the words of Ms Walker and said Mr Albanese was accountable to the people of Australia and that WA farmers were “just as important as any other person in this country”. “I think it’s pretty gutless of Anthony Albanese to force it all onto (Agriculture Minister) Murray Watt,” he said. “As an agriculture minister, his remit is to support agriculture. He’s not supporting agriculture and that is disgraceful. We give him all the evidence and he just smiles and says we’re banning it anyway.” WAFarmers Federation has written a letter to Mr Albanese to request a meeting with him during the February trip — suggesting a February 19 chat. A Government spokeswoman confirmed the Prime Minister’s office had received the letter and that it would “be considered in due course”. WA Liberal MP Rick Wilson said Mr Albanese had “an obligation” to front up to farmers and if he didn’t, it would be a “coward’s act”. “The Prime Minister needs to give farmers the opportunity to explain how critical this industry is to regional communities across WA,” Mr Wilson said. “It’s not just the farmers, it’s the livestock agents, shearers, and particularly the small communities who will be gutted by losing those supply chain participants. The Prime Minister has to hear farmers’ stories before implementing this policy.”