Nationals leader David Littleproud and Coalition members at a Keep the Sheep rally last year.

NATIONALS leader David Littleproud has labelled supposed WA Labor Government support for the live sheep trade a sham after learning the Department of Education WA is blocking secondary student access to the Keep the Sheep website.

Mr Littleproud said Labor has treated Western Australia’s farmers with contempt throughout the entire live sheep trade consultation process.

“The blocking of the Keep the Sheep website by the WA Government despite professing its support for the industry shows they were never supportive of the industry at all,” he said.

“Labor needs to answer – why does it have the department shutting down websites that provide crucial information?

“The entire process has been a sham – a future Coalition Government will reinstate the live sheep export trade.”

In December 2023, WA Premier Roger Cook told the WA Parliament that his government’s analysis demonstrated there would be a loss of around about 400 jobs and a $132 million impact if live sheep exports ended.

“Obviously, we anticipate that the industry will adapt.

“We know that one thing our farmers have is an extraordinary strength of character and resilience,” he said.

“From that perspective, we will continue to stand by them in relation to any impacts that might occur to ensure that they know we have their backs.

“That is what Minister Jarvis, as the Minister for Agriculture and Food, has been taking to the federal government in relation to this issue,” Mr Cook said.

“That demonstrates our commitment that we believe the welfare arrangements that are in place, the checks and balances that have been put in place as a result of the reforms around that are sufficient.

“The federal government has a mandate, and we acknowledge and respect that, but we believe this will be an unnecessary burden and one that it should reconsider,” Mr Cook said.

Premier Cook’s officer has been contacted for comment on the website blocking, but attempts to seek WA Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis’ view on the issue have been rebuffed, with Sheep Central being told to contact the Department of Education WA.

In a reinforcement of recent Department of Education WA consultant statements on the blocking of WA student access to the Keep the Sheep website, another department spokesperson has told Sheep Central on Friday: the www.keepthesheep.com.au website has been automatically categorised by our content filtering subscription service.”

“This content filtering service helps protect students and staff from online material that may be harmful or inappropriate in a school setting,” the spokesperson said.

“Categorisation happens when the software detects sites classified by the subscription service as unsafe through either reputation or content, or when a site is generally safe but contains specific elements that result in the site being categorised and filtered.

“The process that the Department uses to categorise and filter sites in this way is fully automated.”