SHEEP Producers Australia has generated around $6 million in Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry funded grants in recent times, raising questions about the peak sheep meat body’s ability to remain independent from the Albanese Government on policy issues.
The peak body today announced The Green Sheep Project as a major national initiative to support the sheep industry with practical tools and knowledge to respond to a changing climate and meet growing global demand for verified sustainability credentials.
Minister for Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry Julie Collins announced yesterday that SPA would receive more than $2.9 million “to support improving the climate resilience of sheep farms and to help sheep producers to verify their sustainability credentials, which are essential for maintaining market access” as part of more than $16 million in climate-smart grants flowing to ten projects across the country.
The funding announcement comes just days after the government announced SPA would receive $800,000 in 2025-26 in a non-competitive grant “to deliver an industry-led, government supported strategy, underpinned by robust economic analysis, that promotes direction, confidence and growth in the national and Western Australian sheep meat and wool industry.”
SPA has labelled the initiative its Future Flock project, and according to the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry it will develop a priority action plan to support industry activities that give effect to the strategy, including research and development priorities and other producer and supply chain needs.
The Future Flock project is also associated with a $5 million implementation fund over two years from 2026-27 to implement priority actions arising from the industry strategy. This could include, for example, grants to support research and development priorities, training and capacity building, industry leadership, or to embed new practices across the supply chain, the government said.
Ms Skinner said the Future Flock will be developed alongside the WA Roadmap to 2028.
“The WA Roadmap to 2028 is a state-specific plan – developed in partnership with the WA Strategic Steering Group – which will help support the industry’s adaptation to a future without live sheep exports.
“The Future Flock and WA Roadmap to 2028 complement each other but are separate bodies of work. The WA Roadmap will funnel state priorities into The Future Flock national strategy and vice versa,” she said.
“A dedicated WA Roadmap will be developed by the WA Strategic Steering Group, with support through this project from SPA. This will ensure the unique challenges and opportunities facing the WA sheep industry – including the phase-out of live sheep exports by sea in 2028 – are addressed.
“The Future Flock is a co-investment and SPA is leading the work,” Ms Skinner said.
“The government is providing funding to create a national strategy and a WA roadmap – two findings that came from asking industry through the co-design process – producers, processors, farm services – what they wanted in the wake of the phase out of live exports.
“No one wants live exports to end but given it is being phased-out – in what world should the sheep industry pay to respond to a policy it never wanted?”
Other recent Federal Government grants to SPA include:
A $200,000 (GST exclusive) grant to assist (along with $50,000 to the Goat Industry Council of Australia) the Sheep and Goat Traceability Task Force provide national communication and engagement activities to support the implementation of electronic identification of sheep and goats.
$50,758.13 contract to provide business administration services to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry relating to the live sheep trade phaseout transition process.
A $2 million grant to support the LambEx 2026 event in Adelaide. Lambex is a wholly owned subsidiary of SPA.
Also recently SPA chair Bindi Murray took a $24,000 position paid by the government in a strategic steering group overseeing the WA industry’s transition to the banning of live sheep exports by sea in May 2028.
SPA recently raised the ire of WA sheep producers when it vacillated in its support for the Keep the Sheep group, before offering a qualified commitment to the body formed to fight the Federal Government’s legislated policy to phase out the live sheep trade by sea in May 2028.
Federal funding helps ensure key industry projects
Sheep Producers Australia CEO Bonnie Skinner.
Ms Skinner was asked if believe the level of Federal Government funding for the SPA-led projects will affect the ability of SPA to remain independent on policy issues with the Federal Government. Sheep Central also asked what percentage of SPA funding over the next two years is expected to come from federal government sources, versus from industry income from SFOs, AHA, MLA, NRS and RMAC funding.
Ms Skinner said Sheep Producers Australia is, and will remain, the voice for Australia’s sheep producers.
“While we value a constructive working relationship with the Federal Government, our foremost responsibility is to represent the interests of producers.
“Federal funding helps ensure key industry projects are properly resourced and inclusive, but it does not compromise SPA’s independence. We will continue to speak openly, advocate strongly, and provide evidence-based advice on policy issues that affect the sheep industry,” she said.
“SPA must deliver on its strategic and constitutional objectives, and works with a range of funding sources to achieve this.
“Public funding has, at times, enabled projects that assist producers to respond to the implementation of government policy, and in other instances has supported industry-wide initiatives in the collective interest of the sheep sector, such as LambEx,” Ms Skinner said.
“The sheep industry should be supported by public funds to implement government policy.
“For example, when government implemented electronic identification, SPA led a project to support producers to understand why the change was needed, what they needed to do, and how to meet their obligations,” she said.
“The Green Sheep Project is designed to support producers to respond to climate-related policies and reporting requirements across the supply chain, with funding provided by the Australian Government through the Climate-Smart Agriculture Program under the Natural Heritage Trust.”
The Green Sheep Project
SPA said over three years, the Green Sheep Project will partner with Natural Resource Management organisations and supply chain-bodies to equip producers with user-friendly tools for demonstrating their environmental credentials, support improved grazing and pasture management, document natural capital and make data-driven decisions.
Sheep Producers Australia chief executive officer Bonnie Skinner said the Green Sheep Project supports important capacity building for long-term industry success.
“This project is an investment in our world-leading industry,” she said.
“Equipping sheep producers with the skills and knowledge to support climate-smart practices and the uptake of practical tools to that verify their sustainability credentials to their customers.”
SPA said this work will be supported across the supply chain stakeholders and by the Australian Government to include on-farm trials in Victoria, Western Australia, New South Wales and Tasmania.
SPA sustainability policy advisor Carolyn Cameron said it’s important for the entire industry to meet today’s challenges while shaping tomorrow’s opportunities.
“What makes the Green Sheep Project unique is the whole-of-sector approach – from producers to processors and industry bodies all at the same table,” she said.
“That level of collaboration demonstrates just how important this work is for the future of our industry.”
SPA said it will deliver the Green Sheep Project with Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Management Authority, NRM South, Holbrook Landcare Network and Wheatbelt NRM, with support from Meat & Livestock Australia, Australian Wool Innovation, Integrity Systems Company, AUS-MEAT, the Australian Meat Industry Council and the Southern Australia Livestock Research Council, combining on-farm action with whole-of-supply-chain expertise.
SPA said the Climate Smart Sheep: Building industry capacity across the supply chain (Green Sheep) Project is supported by the Australian Government through funding from the Climate-Smart Agriculture Program under the Natural Heritage Trust.
How can SPA’s Skinner claim that Sheep Producers Australia is, and will remain, the voice for Australia’s sheep producers, when she failed to be vocal in her support of the Keep the Sheep group,
or did she have severe laryngitis?
$1 million to run Lambex from the government then $2 million to run the next event. I was told that the $1 million was to set the event up for the future.
To me this all seems a futile waste of government money.
May I humbly suggest two perhaps, far more worthwhile projects.
Western Australia is supposed to be a state of entrepreneurs. Surely, WA can find a Roger Fletcher or a Colin McKenna, and back them to do what Mr Fletcher has done for NSW and Mr McKenna did for Victoria.
Perhaps the first step is to sit down with the Roger Fletcher and the McKenna families and learn how they made a start. I know Colin McKenna at Midfield started with a lot less than the figure being talked about in this article.
The second suggestion I would make is to fund a series of Phd students to study how some producers manage to do well in a drought and others fail, even with government support.
Rather than rediscover the wheel and wilfully waiste taxpayers’ dollars, let’s learn from what is known but not understood by most.
Is that too much for a humble producer and taxpayer to ask?
Lol. Fletchers International Exports, Narrikup, WA
Yes Craig Mitchell, we all know Fletcher is already operating in Western Australia. But if WA producers are screaming about the loss of the live export trade then surely that indicates a lack of killing space in WA. Come on WA get off your bums and do a bit of innovation yourselves, and stop looking for government handouts. Find your independence and regain your pride. This $6 million is funding yet another Micky Mouse project like WoolProducers’ initiative to explore domestic and diversified early-stage wool processing.