National Farmer Rally: Farmers vow to keep fighting after Question Time walkout amid new PM snub

WA farmers campaigning to save the live sheep export trade have vowed to keep fighting until the ban is overturned after a major protest in Canberra failed to shift the Federal Government.

In dramatic scenes inside Parliament House, angry Keep the Sheep campaigners stormed out of Question Time as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejected suggestions his agricultural and mining agenda was hurting WA.

Mr Albanese was on Tuesday accused once again of snubbing farmers after refusing to attend the National Farming Rally outside Parliament House.

The prime minister did hold private talks with the National Farmers’ Federation, during which peak agriculture body appealed for the live sheep export ban to be reconsidered.

A crowd of at least 1000 people descended on the Parliament House lawns to vent their anger at a suite of Government policies which farmers claim are destroying their livelihoods.

Farmer and event MC Gillian Fennell told the rally the passage of laws to shut down the live sheep export trade by 2028 was the “match that ignited the passion of farmers across the country”.

Keep the Sheep spokesman Ben Sutherland – whose WA-based group organised the event – called on politicians to travel to farming communities to witness first-hand the damage the ban would cause.

“Behind us here (in Parliament) they do not listen,” he said.

“They don’t come and talk to us at the coalface.”

Keep the Sheep has now raised more than $600,000, which will be used to target marginal Labor seats in WA.

Draped in a Keep the Sheep scarf, Opposition leader Peter Dutton and Nationals leader David Littleproud led a large contingent of Coalition MPs – including the entire WA Liberal team – on a march to the rally.

The Nationals and Liberal candidates for the new seat of Bullwinkel, Mia Davies and Matt Moran, also attended.

The Coalition leaders recommitted to immediately repealing the live ban if it won the next election.

“We have your backs and we’ve committed to the industry,” Mr Dutton said.

“We want to make sure there’s a bright future for you, for your kids and for your grandkids.”

Mr Dutton said the Federal Government’s policies were causing uncertainty to ripple through the agriculture and mining sector, undermining Australia’s international reputation.

“At the moment, there are people around the world in these markets who are looking to the Albanese Government, and all they see is great uncertainty,” he said.

Mr Dutton said Mr Albanese should have fronted up to explain the Government’s decision to kill the live sheep export trade, which he described as a “terrible mistake”.

“Why would you say to the farmers of Western Australia that you have no future?” Mr Dutton said, to cries of “shame” from the crowd.

Mr Littleproud promised his first act as agriculture minister would be to introduce legislation to repeal the ban, while his first overseas trips would be to Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan — all countries that import live sheep from Australia.

Inside parliament, Mr Littleproud challenged Mr Albanese to explain how the nation’s animal welfare standards compared with those in Sudan, one of the export markets that buyers will turn to once Australia’s ban kicks in.

The prime minister side-stepped the question, instead drawing attention to the dramatic decline in live sheep exports during the Coalition’s nine years in power.

Mr Albanese repeated that legislating a shut-down date would provide certainty for the sector, while the promised $107 million transition package would ensure an “orderly” end for what is an “already declining trade”.

Shortly after, farmers stormed out of Question Time after Mr Albanese skirted around another question about the damage his policies were causing WA.

“It was ridiculous and shows not only has he not been listening, but that he is wilfully ignorant to the plight of farmers and regional communities,” Australian Live Exporters Council chairman David Galvin said of Mr Albanese’s response.

Earlier on Tuesday, hundreds of farmers lined the overpass outside Parliament House, waving posters that read “Keep the Sheep”, “No Farmers No Future No Food” and “You can’t eat red tape” as a convoy of an estimated 50 trucks motored past.