Sheep exporters are disgusted by the Albanese government's push to meet its "dumb" election promise to phase out live sheep exports by sea, a move welcomed by animal welfare groups.
The former CEO of the Murray Darling Basin Authority and senior public servant, Phillip Glyde, will lead an independent panel on a six-month consultation process to map out the steps to the shutdown.
The panel includes former RSPCA Australia boss Heather Neil, who has lobbied against live sheep exports, and former minister and long-serving Northern Territory Labor MP Warren Snowdon, an advocate for live cattle exports.
The panel also includes Western Australian agriculture expert Sue Middleton.
"Phasing out live sheep exports by sea is a complex issue that will impact farmers, businesses, our trading partners, and the communities that participate in the trade," Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said on Friday.
"I am also conscious that the wider Australian community is interested in the phase-out, including those that want to see animal welfare maintained and improved."
Senator Watt said he wanted to ensure the phase-out was orderly, adding it wouldn't take effect in this term of the Labor government.
But farmers have slammed the move, asking why the government can't review its election promise to ban live sheep exports.
In a letter sent to Senator Watt on Friday and seen by AAP, WA Farmers president John Hassell pleads with the government to reconsider its commitment to the phase-out.
And he warned it will negatively impact 3000 people associated with the industry.
Almost all live sheep exports are carried out in Western Australia.
"We think that the government's live export policy was a dumb commitment," Mr Hassell said in the letter.
"If there was ever a case study of improvement in an industry then the live exports is it."
The sheep farmer, who is about to export a thousand live sheep to the Middle East, wants the policy dropped.
"I'm pretty disgusted because they're made promises they wouldn't touch superannuation," he told AAP.
"This one is a promise that should be broken."
He also fired a verbal warning shot at sitting Labor MPs in WA.
"It's not unreasonable to assume that we could be targeting Labor's leads, no doubt about that," he said.
But the RSPCA - and the Australian Alliance for Animals - welcomed the government's "concrete next steps" toward phasing out live sheep exports, describing the establishment of the panel as an "appropriate and sensible move."
"It's good to see the government on track to setting an end date on this cruel and unfixable live sheep export trade," said RSPCA Australia CEO Richard Mussell.
"An independent panel, at arms-length from government, with a diversity of expertise - including animal welfare expertise - will be well-placed to advise the government on how best to achieve a phase-out," he said.
The RSPCA reiterated its call for the government to legislate the ban during this term of parliament.
The panel is due to provide its report to the government by September 30.
The live sheep export trade is worth about $85 million a year.
