Western Australia Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis says farmers need to face a future without live sheep exports after backing down from a fight with her federal counterpart.
Federal Labor confirmed its plan to end Australia's $92 million live sheep trade in the weeks leading up to last year's federal election.
"I have pushed the issue as hard as I can, but we are now at the point where [Federal Agriculture Minister] Murray Watt has said that this is happening," Ms Jarvis said.
"We have to agree to disagree."
Ms Jarvis said she had asked the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development to urgently conduct modelling work on what WA's sheep industry would need to operate without live exports.
She said losing live trade would cause hurt and pain, and she said it was imperative the federal government released a transition plan for the industry as soon as it could.
"I don't want to lose our wool industry, so I need to understand what that looks like moving forward," she said.
Ms Jarvis, who took on WA's agriculture portfolio in December after the retirement of Alannah MacTiernan, said the wool industry had not made its stance clear on live exports.
"I'm not criticising the wool sector, but I haven't heard them in the conversation, perhaps no-one has asked them the question," she said.
"I want to try and retain the wool industry but build the sheep meat exports."
Wool grower weighs in
Kojonup wool grower and WA Farmers Livestock Council member Steve McGuire said the WA wool industry had not been asked its thoughts on live export, but he said they strongly supported the live trade.
"I've just come from a tour of a [live export] boat and seeing tens of thousands of merino wethers being loaded onto the ship, it is an important outlet for that sort of sheep," he said.
Mr McGuire said he did not see how WA could successfully transition away from live export.
"We just don't have the killing space. We don't have the labour to work in the abattoirs. If the price falls there will be less sheep which is detrimental to agriculture in Australia because we need a variety of sources of incomes," he said.
"This [policy] is purely political, which is a really concerning way that the government is going.
"This has been driven by animal activists. They don't want us to farm, they're picking the low-hanging fruit; sheep live exports are first."
Not giving up yet
However, Australian Livestock Exporters Council chief executive Mark Harvey-Sutton said the fight to keep the live sheep trade was not over.
He said the federal government's actions and policy to end the trade set an alarming precedent for all agricultural industries.
"We have not had a reportable mortality incident since 2018," Mr Harvey-Sutton said.
"We are seeing record-low mortality levels, and I know people will say 'is mortality the best measure', but it's the most objective one that we have.
"To follow through with the policy like this sends a signal to all agricultural industries that you can do absolutely anything that is asked of you.
"You can reform. You can become the best in the world, but we will still shut you down because it is politically expedient to do so."
Mr Harvey-Sutton urged Ms Jarvis to continue to lobby her federal counterpart to keep live sheep exports.
He said the exporters council had spoken to every livestock-based industry in Australia, including the wool industry, and the livestock sector was unified in its support of live sheep exports.
"We know there will be a consultation process going forward. We have been talking to the federal Department of Agriculture about this," he said.
"Our contribution to that consultation process is we are not going to be contemplating what a transition looks like, because we know it can't work."
