WA agriculture minister warns farmers that the live export industry may not be able to continue without major welfare improvements

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Australia’s sheep and cattle farmers should prepare for a dramatic reduction in the live export trade, Western Australia’s agriculture minister has said, as the state prepares to mount an animal cruelty case that could render the trade unprofitable.

Alannah MacTiernan told the Guardian Australia that if the case is successful live export ships would be unlikely to comply with WA animal welfare laws without improvements such as air-conditioning and much lower stocking density — changes exporters have argued are not economically viable.

Even if those changes could be managed, she said, it’s unlikely they would be in place for the start of the high-risk export season in July, meaning that live sheep exports to the Middle East during the northern summer may be blocked.

“At this point, what we’re saying is there obviously has to be a very significant change,” MacTiernan told Guardian Australia. “And so it is very important that we put in place strategies and market development to ensure that there are viable other alternatives.

“Either way something is going to have to change particularly in relation to that trade that is going on, the high volume of the trade that is going on over those summer months.”

Her comments come as the federal Department of Agriculture announced the terms of reference for a review on export conditions for the northern summer, which will assess the potential use of air conditioning.

On Saturday the department suspended the sale of Australian sheep to an approved abattoir in Qatar, prompting renewed calls for an independent inspector general to oversee the live export trade.

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WA is the largest exporter of live export sheep, with 1.59m of the 1.78m sheep exported in 2016 loaded on to ships in Fremantle.

That gives the state a unique trigger to curb the industry using provisions in its Animal Welfare Act 2002, which provides that a person is guilty of animal cruelty if they transport an animal “in a way that causes, or is likely to cause, it unnecessary harm”.

MacTiernan said there was considerable evidence behind the claim that current practices of transporting sheep to the Middle East during the northern hemisphere summer at stocking densities of 0.38 square metres per sheep “would end up with sheep suffering an unacceptable level of pain and distress”.

live export mortality events Source: Department of Agriculture

That evidence comes from both scientific papers and the federal department’s own research and mortality investigations, she said.

The WA Department of Agriculture last month began preparing a prosecution case against WA-based Emanuel Exports over conditions on a ship that left Fremantle on 1 August, 2017, on which 2,400 sheep died, primarily of heat stress.

The voyage was one of five filmed by whistleblower Faisal Ullah and the footage he filmed, along with his witness statement, has formed part of the investigation.

If the prosecution is successful it could override stocking densities in the Australian Standards for Livestock Export (ASEL) and demand conditions that render live export unprofitable. Vets have recommended a minimum 50% reduction in stocking densities.

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“It certainly would mean that there would have to be a departure from the way in which the summer trade is now conducted,” MacTiernan said.

MacTiernan said she warned exporters about the possibility of animal cruelty charges in 2017 following the release of a mortality investigation into another Emanuel Exports consignment, saying she would feel “morally and legally obliged to investigate”.

A WA magistrate in 2008 found that conditions on live export ships breached the Animal Welfare Act but held that the act was invalid because it was inconsistent with federal regulations governing live export. MacTiernan said she has since received advice that this decision should have been overturned on appeal.

The live export industry has consistently argued against reductions in stocking density.

In 2008 a group of six exporters took to the federal court to overturn a directive from the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (Aqis) to provide sheep travelling to the Gulf states with up to 15% more space, saying the proposal would cause them to “suffer significant financial loss” because they have fixed overheads that cannot be reduced.

The Australian Live Export Council claimed in a submission to the Productivity Commision in 2016 that a 10% reduction in stocking density could cut profits by between 35% and 100%.

MacTiernan said she had encouraged farmers to focus on boosting the boxed meat trade to key live export markets in the Middle East and North Africa in light of the “risk” posed by high profile animal welfare violations.

That included products that could replace the demand for live sheep in Eid al-Adha.

“It’s common now in Bahrain and Jordan for example, you get a voucher, your sheep is killed in the country where the sheep has grown up, the meat is sent over to you boxed and you discharge your obligations in that way,” she said. “That gives us an opportunity to sell that product into other markets like Qatar and Saudi Arabia.”

She said conditions shown in the whistleblower footage identified other “vulnerabilities” that left WA farmers exposed.

“There have been some suggestions now that because you have dead sheep next to live sheep being unloaded that those sheep are no longer halal,” she said. “We have to accept that there’s a vulnerability in the market if we don’t get this right.”