Prime Minister Anthony Albanese slammed for poor taste live export trade joke in room full of farmers

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been lambasted for bragging about killing the live export industry at a dinner celebrating rural women’s achievements.

Towards the end of a scripted speech to the AgriFutures Rural Women’s Awards at Parliament House on Tuesday night, Mr Albanese noted it was his second event of the evening after he had dined earlier with Indonesian president-elect Prabowo Subianto.

“One of the things that we talked about was agriculture, the importance of that we have in this country of not just providing food security for us, but we are the envy of the world for the natural assets that we have, for the space that we have, which is why, when we had dinner — beautiful Australian beef, not the live export, we made sure it was dead,” he said.

In a recording of the speech provided to The West, a smattering of nervous laughs from across the room follows the joke, before the Prime Minister paused for a moment.

Mr Albanese then continued: “Um, but it was, and those industries are so important for that relationship with Indonesia.”

He went on to note there was “enormous opportunity for growth” in domestic production and as Australia becoming a food bowl for the world, before returning to the rest of his scripted remarks.

“So @AlboMP just made a very poor taste joke about killing off live export off at the @AgriFuturesAU dinner. An audible murmur of discontent in the room,” South Australian farmer and agriculture advocate Gillian Fennell tweeted.

A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said he was reinforcing the importance of the Australian beef industry.

Listen to the audio in the video player above

“Exports of beef to Indonesia hit a record high in 2022-23,” the spokeswoman said.

“The Government fulfilled an election promise on the live sheep export ban and has offered an adjustment package.

“We will continue to discuss this with the industry and the WA Government.”

Mr Albanese’s joke comes months after Labor passed laws banning the live sheep export by 2028, ending the trade for hundreds of WA farmers.

The agricultural sector fears that once live sheep exports by sea are banned, animal activists will turn their sights on ending cattle exports too.

But the funding package — $107 million for farmers — has been labelled as inadequate by the industry and the WA State Government.

Nationals leader David Littleproud said farmers he had spoken with were “extremely upset” about the Prime Minister’s comments.

It’s no joke, in my eyes it’s quite scary to have a government that doesn’t care about regional Australia.

“Why the Prime Minister would choose the AgriFutures awards — a night celebrating our agriculture industry — to mock our industries is beyond me,” Mr Littleproud said.

“Farmers were already planning a rally outside Parliament House on September 10 to highlight the contempt they have been shown by Labor. The Prime Minister’s comments only reiterate how let down and betrayed our farmers feel and if anything, farmers will now be even more encouraged and energised to join the rally.”

Nationals candidate for Bullwinkel Mia Davies said the comments showed how “out of touch” the Prime Minister was with regional communities and industry.

“In a room of regional champions, he chose to joke about shutting down live trade and ripping the rug out from communities and businesses who have done nothing but work hard to produce food to feed the world.

“It was a disgraceful comment and he should apologise for being so callous and tone deaf.

“Last night was a moment to celebrate women who have lifted the profile and lives of people who call regional, rural and remote Australia home.

“His comments weren’t missed, especially by those from Western Australia who are dealing with the devastating decision to put an end to their businesses and livelihood by shutting down live sheep export.”

Australia Livestock Exporters’ Council chief executive Mark Harvey-Sutton said the joke was another insult to Keep the Sheep campaigners and farmers.

WA Livestock and Rural Transporters president and Keep the Sheep spokesman Ben Sutherland said the comments had left him feeling betrayed.

“I am disgusted to the core,” Mr Sutherland said.

“Labor throws rural communities into the wind and continually keeps laughing about it. It’s no joke, in my eyes it’s quite scary to have a government that doesn’t care about regional Australia.

“The Prime Minister is not listening to rural Australia, he is taking us for granted. He has no concept of what he is doing to rural Australia. He is destroying industries and lives and livelihoods, with no real consequence or guilt of his own conscious.”

The Keep the Sheep organisation in WA is planning to campaign strongly against the live export ban over the next several months until the federal election.

It has raised a $500,000 war chest, which it says is enough to target three marginal seats in the vital state with plans to add more electorates to the list as further funds are raised.

It is also connecting with the National Farmers Federation’s “keep farmers farming” campaign.

A major rally is planned for outside Parliament House in Canberra in September.