Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Julie Collins, second from right, discusses sheep with SPA CEO Bonnie Bergin, LambEx chair Jason Schulz, SA’s Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development Clare Scriven and producer Nigel Kerin.
AUSTRALIA’S peak sheep producer body has refused to commit to the Keep the Sheep campaign and by association to the overturning of the live sheep trade phaseout legislation.
Less than a week before the National Farmer Rally in Canberra, Sheep Central has learned that Sheep Producers Australia’s chief executive officer Bonnie Skinner and board member Western Australian producer Bindi Murray are no longer members of the Keep the Sheep steering committee.
Sheep Central has confirmed that SPA did not respond to a request by the Keep the Sheep steering committee for a commitment to the Keep the Sheep campaign, made to finalise its governance arrangements.
Keep the Sheep is dedicated to overturning the live sheep by sea trade ban set in legislation for May 2028. A petition supporting this has received more than 86,000 signatures toward its 100,000 signature target by 11am, Tuesday 10 September, when the National Farmer Rally starts in Canberra.
Current Keep the Sheep steering committee members include representatives from the National Farmers Federation, Wool Producers Australia, the Livestock Collective, WAFarmers, livestock transporters, shearers and Merino breeders.
This week in response to questions from Sheep Central, Sheep Producers Australia’s chairman Andrew Spencer said he would be representing SPA at the National Farmer Rally.
But Mr Spencer did not clarify SPA’s level of commitment to the Keep the Sheep campaign or to overturning the live trade phaseout legislation. Mr Spencer also did not address questions asking if the SPA had signed the Keep the Sheep petition, if it intended to commit to the Keep the Sheep campaign in the future, or what role it intended to play in the industry battle to retain the live sheep trade.
Mr Spencer said Sheep Producers Australia is supportive of the upcoming National Farmer Rally in Canberra.
“This is an opportunity for (the) agricultural community to come together and to be heard.
“We are seeing a growing number of policy decisions being driven by anti-farming activism, not by science and evidence,” he said.
“Policy decisions must be informed by farmers’ lived experience and designed to sustain and strengthen the industry, the future of Australian agriculture depends on policies that are grounded in evidence, not activism.
“The rally is to not specifically targeted at the ALP, Coalition or Greens, it is about a united voice for agriculture getting the attention of all decision makers and all political persuasions.”
Keep the Sheep steering committee chairman and Australian Livestock Exporters Council chief executive officer Mark Harvey-Sutton would not comment on SPA’s position.
“We were simply making sure that we had the strongest governance arrangements in place,” he said.
Mr Harvey-Sutton said he was disappointed the issue had been leaked from the steering committee and it would be addressed at its next meeting.
WAFarmers president John Hassell also would not comment on SPA’s position, but said he was excited by the rally and the level of support for the Keep the Sheep campaign has received.
“You’ve never seen the shearers, the trucking contractors, the farmers and the stud Merino breeders in the same room together.
“That really says something, because this is about community.”
Sheep Producers Australia has recently taken a leadership role in negotiations with Minister for Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry Julie Collins in an attempt to boost the current $107 million transition package for the live sheep trade phaseout.
The fury I am feeling at the moment is undescribable. Sheep farmers are standing together around the country, but the representative group is fighting against us. Disband this organisation right now. They do not represent me or the thousands of other farmers in Australia.
Why would SPA get on board and then jump ship? Are they funded by the WA Government and would their support for Keep the Sheep jeopardize their funding?
Why don’t we compromise and set up freezer rooms at major rural towns and enlarge local abattoirs with government assistance? Export chilled meat to new markets and increased employees. I don’t think live sheep exports are sustainable with the shipping freight costs, plus animal welfare.
Sheep Producers Australia has always and continues to strongly oppose any policy seeking to phase out the live sheep exports by sea.
Sheep Producers Australia supports the #KeeptheSheep campaign as a rejection of this policy and as a movement of the grassroots industry and supply chain to advocate to change this policy.
Sheep Producers Australia does not hold a formal or financial role in any registered political campaign in line with our constitutional requirements.
Sheep Producers Australia rejects the false and inaccurate content of this Sheep Central article. Editor’s note: Sheep Central editor Terry Sim rejects this SPA claim and stands by the sequence of events and statements outlined in the original story and as verified where necessary by Keep the Sheep.
It is for industry and business to conduct and manage business, government to provide a possible environment for this to happen, and business must supply what customers demand, lest they fail.
SPA must be getting a hand-out from the government and don’t want to jeopardise their cushy jobs.
Each one of them not supporting this cause needs to be shifted out of their positions and people who are aligned put in their place.
Normal Labor Government process.
Sheep Producers Australia predictably lean toward non-commitment to stopping the ban. They are not rolling over because they are beaten. They roll over because if they show open support their future political ambitions might be affected. Sitting on fences is how you get into politics not by taking stands against the people in power, however temporary that power may be.
Wow – one industry body with common sense, and that can think outside the box. Bravo!