Keep the Sheep spokesman Ben Sutherland
THE Keep the Sheep campaign to reverse the legislated phaseout of live sheep exports by sea will hold its first national rally outside Parliament House in Canberra next month.
Campaign spokesman Ben Sutherland said the rally would highlight the Albanese Government’s failures across agriculture.
He said people had tried writing submissions and calling MPs, but they hadn’t been heard and it was now time for politicians to see farmers and truckies on their doorstep in Canberra.
“Albo has seriously underestimated Australian agriculture. So far, he’s listened to activists and noisy minorities, but ignored farmers, truckies and regional communities.”
“So, we’re bringing the campaign to him,” he said.
Mr. Sutherland said the government has pushed through the ban on live sheep exports.
“But we also have a mounting pile of evidence that they don’t care about issues across the board outside major capital cities.
“At a time when Aussies are struggling to put food on the table, why would the Government make life any harder for farmers and regional communities?” Mr Sutherland said.
WAFarmers president John Hassell said the national ag rally is a call to arms for Australia’s ag industry.
“We cannot sit by while the current Albanese Government destroys our industry and regional communities,” he said.
“Make no mistake, this will not stop with their attack on live sheep exports, as we know that they will be coming after live cattle exports next, along with water buy-backs in the Murray Darling Basin, destroying valuable farm land with transmission lines to satisfy their insatiable appetite for renewable energy at any cost, and loading massive burden on to our national transport industry, just to name a few.
“We have been too silent for far too long while the current government have ignored us, disrespected our industry bodies, and chosen to listen to animal activist groups for their own benefit,” Mr Hassell said..
Mr Sutherland said Keep the Sheep knows that the WA sheep industry is not alone in being ignored by the current government and attacked by activists.
“We’re inviting all agriculture and regional industries from across the country to stand with us and share this historic day as a platform to be heard,” he said.
“Keep the Sheep is proud to have people from all over the country coming to the capital to take a stand and we urge everyone who feels strongly to join us.
“See you in Canberra!”
The national rally will be held at the lawns in front of Parliament House, Canberra at 12 PM AEST, Tuesday 10 September.
The rally will start at 8am with a slow drive convoy to Parliament House, then culminating at the Exhibition Centre (EPIC) parking lot. From there, a small fleet of buses will deliver everyone to Parliament House for the Rally at 12pm, and then back to EPIC at the completion of the day.
If live exports to the Middle East are to be banned, then perhaps the Tasmanian activists should move to ban Tasmania’s livestock exports to the mainland.
Various members of the Australian community turned out in force over and over again at multiple protest rallies around the country over the past couple of decades, and certainly, more frequently since 2011.
We turned up to speak out against animal cruelty and suffering – documented animal cruelty and suffering that all factors of the industry knew about and swept under the rug.
In 2011, we gathered over 200,000 petition signatures in three days to end live cattle exports to Indonesia.
More recently (2023), we gathered 43,758 signatures in four weeks, calling for a live sheep end date to be legislated. It was, in fact, the 31st largest petition ever made via the e-petitions website, and the 5th largest in the 47th Parliament. Conversely, the Save Live Export parliamentary petition which closed a couple of months later gathered just 1307 signatures.
We were never opposed to “farmers”. Who in their right mind, with any need to eat, opposes farmers? We opposed the cruelty and suffering inherent in the live sheep trade, in particular, but no way exclusively. A trade that *some* sheep producers knowingly sold their sheep into, and continued to sell them into it even after the veil of ignorance was lifted.
We were referred to as grubby, tree-hugging unemployed, latté-sipping, hippie losers, despite the fact that we were represented by doctors, nurses, teachers, and many other professionals, farmers, truckies, meat-eaters, the retired and students.
Now, those who opposed us and, by that very action, supported the cruelty we spoke out against, are heading to Canberra to protest for that cruelty to continue in the face of scientific evidence, current and historical data, expert opinion and public sentiment. Given we had all the above on our side in our campaigning for a noble cause, I hope they face double the 40+ years of campaigning, lobbying and protests we have endured, in their campaigning for the suffering to persist.