ALEC CEO Mark Harvey-Sutton speaks at the KeepTheSheep rally in Perth last year.

KEEP the Sheep’s parent body has called time on its campaign to reverse the phaseout of live sheep exports by sea, but is considering options to best utilize the huge database and regional community skillset it has created.

Keep the Sheep was an initiative of Farming Families and Communities WA Ltd that recently lobbied against Labor members in the Western Australian state and the federal election.

FFCWA company secretary and chief executive officer of the Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council Mark Harvey-Sutton said Keep the Sheep will take a hiatus to look at the future of the organization, but he expected it would have an ongoing role in rural advocacy in the future.

“We now have the tools, the machinery and infrastructure to run a campaign.”

Mr Harvey-Sutton said Keep the Sheep generated a national database of 115,000 supporters and alliances with many industry organisations.

“It’s the biggest database of agricultural supporters in the country.”

Mr Harvey-Sutton said a campaign like Keep the Sheep had never been undertaken in Australian agriculture before.

“It was something that was built from the ground up and everyone involved as learning as we went.

“But at the end of it, after 12 months, regardless of the outcome of the federal election what we do have now is a brand new skillset and a new tool that is available to the sector to undertake campaigns in the future,” he said.

“And I would say and strongly suspect, given the track record of the government and their approach to agriculture, there will be a need for campaigns like Keep the Sheep in the future.”

On the possibility of a class action or legal action to gain compensation for people and businesses affected by the legislated phaseout of live sheep exports from 1 May 2028, Mr Harvey-Sutton said all options are on the table.

“No doubt there is a lot of discussion about the prospect of pursing legal action, but that would need to be further explored as we continue to work through what is happening with the phaseout plan.”

Success in increasing understanding

Mr Harvey-Sutton said FFTCWA originally started Keep the Sheep as a pressure movement to try to prevent the legislation for the live sheep ban from passing the parliament.

“When we were unsuccessful, we pivoted to applying political pressure to attempt to reverse the ban, or reverse the government,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the political wind was not at our back.

“This is not for want of trying. The collective efforts of every one of our volunteers built a movement, gave agriculture a voice and meant that our issue could not be ignored,” Mr Harvey-Sutton said.

Mr Harvey-Sutton said Keep the Sheep recognized that urban voters were facing other issues such as cost of living, concerns about working from home and the Australian economy.

“We were fully aware that it was a big ask to expect people to switch their vote based on what is essentially a niche issue that only affects rural and regional Australia.

“But that’s not to say that we did not have success in getting people to understand the issue,” he said.

“Certainly the polling and research that we undertook showed that awareness of the issue was very high and a good example would be on polling day when I had Labor volunteers saying to me ‘I can’t believe they are doing this to you, it’s a terrible policy etcetera etcetera’.

“So I think we were successful in getting people to appreciate it, but we actually encourage people to vote for the sector and more broadly for rural and regional Australia? Perhaps not,” he said.

“It wasn’t marked by a win (in any WA seat), but certainly the swing (to Labor) was less in some seats, so there were signs that it did have an impact on how people voted.

“It is not to be taken for granted what we actually did achieve on something that had never been done before,” Mr Harvey-Sutton said.

“We had people who had never volunteered or been involved in political campaigns putting their hands up.

“I think it was great that people felt that they had the opportunity to do something, rather than continuing to feel ignored and admonished by the government; it gave them something to do to fix the situation,” he said.

“So what we do have now, in terms of the political paradigm facing agriculture and the way the parliament has settled, is we have an urban government and rural-regional opposition.

“So there is no doubt now that the broader (agricultural) sector has a challenge between that urban and regional divide, and how we approach that from an advocacy perspective will necessitate discussion about how we continue to advocate in the future,” Mr Harvey-Sutton said.

“And so, going full circle, that’s why we look at what we have created with Keep the Sheep, the tools and options that are available for the industry to use, I think it is going to be a valuable asset going forward to evolve our advocacy to try to bridge that gap.”

Keep the Sheep ‘mothballed’ for now

Mr Harvey-Sutton said FFCWA wanted to be transparent with its volunteers and let them know of its plans.

To minimise costs, FFCWA has “rolled off” the contractors who were working on Keep the Sheep following the election.

“This is to ensure that our ongoing donor income is directed to maintaining the website and helping us stay compliant with our obligations under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.”

Mr Harvey-Sutton said the election campaign did not leave “much in the tank.”

“We spent nearly all the money we raised on campaigning and pushing our message into key seats.

“What remains will be used to cover our debts and preserve our resources to ensure the company remains solvent and our key asset of the website is maintained,” he said.

“This essentially means we are mothballing Keep the Sheep for now.

“We realise this may be disappointing. But it is not the end.”

Mr Harvey-Sutton said what the Keep the Sheep volunteers have built sets the tone for agriculture advocacy into the future.

“We know that there are challenges on the horizon that will require what we have built, to create an understanding for regional communities and bring their issues to the forefront, in both regional and metro areas.”

Mr Harvey-Sutton said launching Keep the Sheep involved 12 months of groundwork; creating a strategy, gathering support and seed funding.

“Building a campaign of the magnitude of Keep the Sheep doesn’t just happen.

“In order to develop further, we need time and support to create something that honours the work each of you have put in,’ he said

“We ask for your patience as we work through this process, so that we can create a powerful voice for rural communities that will echo around the country.”