Interview with Belinda Varischetti, ABC WA Country Hour

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC WA COUNTRY HOUR WITH BELINDA VARISCHETTI
THURSDAY, 6 JUNE 2024

SUBJECTS: ABARES Agricultural commodities and crop reports; The Albanese Government's commitment to phase out live sheep exports by sea.

BELINDA VARISCHETTI, HOST: New data from Australia's agricultural forecaster, ABARES, shows global demand for Australia's premium sheep meat products remains high, with strong demand for both lamb and mutton from the Middle East and other emerging markets. It's welcome news for the Federal Government, which plans to end the live sheep trade by sea in May 2028 and focus all efforts on the onshore processing side of the industry. The Federal Agriculture Minister is Murray Watt. Minister, there's quite a lot to discuss today. Let's start with the ABARES figures. What do they reveal?

MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY, MURRAY WATT: Yeah, this is more terrific news for our sheep industry right across Australia, with some new figures coming out from ABARES, Australia's leading agricultural forecaster that show the global demand for Australian sheep meat, whether that be lamb, mutton or other products, remains very high. We've actually, in the last couple of years, been achieving record numbers of sheep meat exports from Australia, so it's really pleasing to see ABARES forecasting that Australia will remain the world's largest exporter of sheep meat. That's obviously good for sheep farmers, it's good for sheep processors. But obviously our government is very committed to more value adding of products, whether it be agricultural products or mining products, because this means more jobs in regional parts of Western Australia and right across the country. The markets that we've got keep diversifying. There's very strong growth in the Middle East for sheep meat products. We actually already sell more sheep meat from Australia to the Middle East than we send in live exports at the moment. And that growth is predicted to grow. But China remains a strong market, many other markets right across Asia, even into the UK and India, as a result of our new free trade agreements. So, I think this is really promising news for our sheep industry going forward.

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: Now, these figures obviously fit in, dovetail very nicely into the Federal Government's policy to end the live sheep trade by sea. But there's been a very strong response here in Western Australia to that policy, the end of that trade, with that date that you've announced, May 2028, when the industry comes to an end. There was a really strong response and it really culminated in thousands of people, a convoy of thousands of trucks, cars and utes here last Friday, all protesting under the banner of Keep the Sheep, and against the policy to phase out the live sheep trade by sea and targeting marginal seats and supporting candidates prepared to support farmers and agriculture in the lead up to the next federal election. What's your response to that rally, firstly?

MURRAY WATT: Look, I wasn't particularly surprised that we did see a large turnout in that rally. We do understand that this is a contentious issue and I acknowledge that there is disagreement across the community about this. I remain of the view that the strong majority of the Western Australian population supports what we've taken to the election. Of course, this is an election commitment that we've taken to the last two elections. So, in the end, I see my role mainly as delivering an election commitment that the Australian people voted for. We recognise that this will have some impact on the industry and on rural communities. That's why we did decide to follow the panel's recommendation to have a four year phaseout rather than do it immediately, as some people wanted us to do. And it's also why we've put $107 million of taxpayers funds on the table to help the industry transition towards more onshore processing. You know, we do need to remember and keep it in perspective that this is a relatively small part of Western Australia's agriculture sector. Live exports of sheep by sea are valued at less than one per cent of Western Australia's overall agricultural production. And it's only about 12 to 14 per cent of sheep in Western Australia that are sent for live export. So, the vast majority are already sent for processing.

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: But those figures that you mentioned sort of ignore the wider sort of domino effect of ending an industry like that. And that's what, you know, many groups are continually pointing out. In fact, just this week we heard from the alliance of the Central Great Southern Councils. They've commissioned a report which estimates the end of the live sheep trade could cost their shires a combined total of between $600 million to $1 billion. So, it sort of puts that into a perspective, a wider perspective, of the impact of shutting a trade like this and that domino effect through rural and regional communities.

MURRAY WATT: Well, I'd be very interested to see some of the assumptions that underpinned that research, to test how reliable those figures are. I mean, the Western Australian government, when we were doing the consultation, put forward a submission which actually showed that if we were to phase out the live sheep industry, but farmers were to adjust and move towards more processing or more grains or other products, the economic impact on Western Australia as a whole would be $23 million a year. But that assumes that the phaseout was happening next year when it's actually going to be longer. And it also didn't take note of the increased money that will come into the state as a result of onshore processing. So, I'm not blind to the fact that this will have some impacts on people, and I acknowledge that. And that's why we've always said that we want to work with the industry to make sure that this transition happens as smoothly as possible. But we do need to recognise at the same time the opportunities that are there. As we see, there are figures out literally this week that show that demand across the world for sheep meat exports continues to rise. And I want to make sure that Western Australia gets to take advantage of that and all of the new jobs and the new exports that will come from that.

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: The state government has been critical of the transition package, the $107 million package. And industry, farmers, and associated groups to rural and regional communities say it's an insult, especially when you think of the $107 million package, that $64.6 million of that is sort of earmarked for sheep producers and the supply chain. Any chance of increasing that figure, making it a larger package?

MURRAY WATT: Well, I don't think that it is a small amount of money that we are asking taxpayers to contribute to an industry that, we have to be honest, has been in decline for 20 years. I mean -

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: But we've got markets opening up now, Saudi Arabia, for example, opening up as a new opportunity for the industry.

MURRAY WATT: Sure we do, we do. But they are completely outnumbered by the markets that we have opening up for sheep meat exports. That's where the growth in this industry is happening. That's where the future value and the jobs in this industry are happening. And I don't want to just see that go to the east coast of Australia. I want to make sure that Western Australia gets its fair share of that as well.

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: Paul Brown from the Keep the Sheep campaign says he and Holly Ludeman from the Livestock Collective would happily invite Murray Watt to debate about live sheep exports at any time and any place he chooses with the media present. The lies that he's promoting on behalf of east coast animal activist groups and grubby preference deals need to be challenged in a public forum. We challenge him to turn up. This too, spoken like a politician out of touch, no idea of ag systems, chasing votes. Michelle says, how reliable is the Minister's claim most Australians want live ex banned? And what people in WA voted for the live export ban? I didn't get to vote. Minister, will some of the assistance package money to transition out of the live sheep trade by sea be distributed to the processors here in WA? WAMMCO and V&V Walsh, they've both got plans to increase their processing capacity and clearly that would be fast tracked with access to funds from this transition package. Will that happen?

MURRAY WATT: I'd certainly expect that a significant portion of that money will go towards processors for that purpose. We haven't yet designed the grant guidelines and things like that for working out exactly how that money will be distributed. But the sorts of things that we've got in mind for that would be, for starters, some small grants to go towards farmers so that they can make adjustments on-farm to move towards more raising sheep for processing rather than for live exports. There might be more small capital items that they need on their farms and things like that. But also what the processors have told us consistently over the last couple of years is that they don't so much need assistance to build new abattoirs, but they would need assistance to do things like put in cold storage to store and freeze the sheep meat once it's actually processed, so that everything can be kept online and ready for when the demand is there overseas. It could be used for feedlots as well, to sort of even out over the course of the year when sheep are being put through processing sheds. They're the kind of things that processors have told us would really assist them to scale up their processing so that we are able to make use of the sheep, and so that we have a strong sheep industry going forward.

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: So, when are we going to get the detail of this package? Because even the state Agriculture Minister, Jackie Jarvis, has plans to come and visit you in Canberra to try and get some more details. She doesn't know the detail, industry hasn't got the detail. So, when does that come through? Because that's, you know, again, it's been seen as an insult to the industry here in terms of the planning for the future.

MURRAY WATT: We obviously have to do these things in stages. I mean, I would expect that we would have more detail for people early in the new financial year about those grants. The money isn't available until the new financial year, so we do have a little bit of time to work with industry and design these guidelines.

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: One other point that V&V Walsh has made to us in the past, after your announcement of the end of the trade in May 2028. They would have liked to have seen more focus from the government on resolving the comparatively high cost and low frequency of air freight to chilled lamb markets in the Middle East, as this will be an important market in the future. This, V&V Walsh is saying, and also assist our trading partners. Any chance of addressing that air freight issue?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, that's certainly something that I've been discussing with the Transport Minister, Catherine King. And if you have a look at the panel's report, one of the recommendations they provided to the government was that we can do some more work in this space, so, we certainly intend to do so. A lot of people focus on Qatar Airways, and I would make the point that there is no limit whatsoever on the number of freight flights that Qatar Airways can bring in and out of Australia at the moment. So, if there's a market there, they can do that today.

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: Out of Perth? Out of Western Australia?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, out of Perth, absolutely. So, that option remains available right now, if Qatar Airways have got the demand and got the market to do so. There are obviously many other airlines flying in and out of Perth that can do it too. But one of the other things that's happened in the last few months that I think is really exciting for the WA sheep industry is that we reached an agreement with the Gulf states where they would accept sheep meat with a longer shelf life from Australia. And the importance of that is that it means that it opens up a lot more sea-based trade as well. You know, one of the issues has been that if the countries will only accept meat that's been processed within a fairly short amount of time, it kind of makes it the only option to take it by air. With them having decided to relax the guidelines about the shelf life that they'll accept, that makes it much more possible for sea-based trade as well. But absolutely, we want to keep working on the air freight as well.

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: And another issue, Murray Watt, is that Nationals leader David Littleproud was here on the Country Hour yesterday calling on you to make good a promise you made in Senate Estimates to hold a Senate Inquiry into the policy to end the live sheep trade by sea. Will that Senate Inquiry take place?

MURRAY WATT: It might not surprise you to hear that David Littleproud is misrepresenting what I said in Senate Estimates. What I actually said in Senate Estimates was that the decision about holding a Senate Inquiry is one that only the Senate can make. A Minister can't make that decision and the government can't make the decision. What I did say was that I would expect that there would be a Senate Inquiry and that it would happen in Western Australia. Obviously, since that time, I've asked the House of Representatives to hold an inquiry. And the reason I did that was that I thought it was actually important that we hold an inquiry of some kind, a parliamentary inquiry, before it's voted on by either chamber of the Parliament. And by doing it this way, there will be that inquiry, and people in Western Australia will have an opportunity to participate before the House of Reps even votes on it, let alone before the Senate. So, obviously, it'll still be a decision for the Senate about whether to hold a Senate inquiry. But in the meantime, we are having a House of Reps inquiry that will have hearings in some of the affected areas. Rick Wilson, the Member of Parliament whose electorate is most affected, is the Deputy Chair of that inquiry. So, we have gone out of our way to make sure that people do have an opportunity to have their say via that inquiry.

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: But what sort of a difference will that ultimately make, considering that the government has the numbers in the House of Reps?

MURRAY WATT: We have been very clear from day one that having made an election commitment and having been elected to government, that we intend to carry out that commitment. You know, I don't want to offer people false hope that an inquiry, whether it be House or Senate, is going to change the government's position on that. What the inquiry is -

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: But the Senate inquiry can block the policy, though. That's the difference between the -

MURRAY WATT: The Senate can block the bill if you choose it to do so, whether it has an inquiry or not. And obviously, part of my responsibility is to make sure that we get the majority of the Senate to vote for the legislation. And I'm sure the opponents of this policy will be working hard to try to stop that from happening. It's a democracy. That's what happens. But really, what this inquiry is about is about the text of the Bill. It's not about revisiting whether this is a good or a bad idea. That matter was decided at the last federal election when the majority of Australians voted for it. And frankly, when Labor won a lot of Western Australian seats at the last election, having made this commitment. Again, I acknowledge that there are a large number of people in Western Australia who don't support this policy. There is an even larger number of people in Western Australia who do support it.

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: Murray Watt, good to talk to you.

MURRAY WATT: You, too, Belinda.