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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-11-01 Daily Xml
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Live Sheep Export

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (14:27): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Primary Industries regarding sheep prices in South Australia.

Leave granted.

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI: When asked a question in this chamber on 8 March this year on the topic of whether the minister supported the federal government's move to ban live sheep exports, the minister said, and I quote, 'That is obviously a matter for them,' and that:

They—

that is, we the opposition—

might also be interested to apprise themselves of how much live export happens from South Australia when it comes to live sheep export, because I think they might find that particularly interesting reading.

For several months, sheep prices have been plummeting dramatically. Analysts and livestock agents say there are many factors behind the price crash, including limited kill capacity at abattoirs, sheep being sold off in dry areas like northern New South Wales, uncertainty about drier conditions ahead and a hit to confidence because of the looming live export ban.

Western Australia as a state has significantly fewer abattoirs compared with eastern states, including South Australia, because of their live sheep export trade. It has been predicted that the loss of live sheep export trade will see more sheep trucked across the border for processing, further driving down the already low prices per head. My questions to the minister are:

1. Has she been contacted by sheep producers about their concerns regarding the effect of flooding of the market of sheep from WA and its impact on South Australian producers and sheep prices?

2. What is she doing to ensure that South Australian sheep producers will not be affected by the Albanese Labor government's ban on live sheep exports?

3. Has she advocated on behalf of South Australian sheep producers to her federal colleagues to reverse the live sheep export ban?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:29): I thank the honourable member for her question. I do wonder, though, whether she has taken my advice back from 8 March that she quoted of going and finding out how much live export there is directly from South Australia. It would sound as though she hasn't taken that advice. But be that as it may, it is worth pointing out that the ban on live sheep export of course hasn't as yet come into effect. If I recall correctly, the commonwealth government has indicated that it won't be implemented in this term of the Albanese government, but of course the planning going ahead is progressing, as I understand it.

I think one aspect that the member mentioned is accurate, which is that there are many factors impacting the prices of sheep at the moment. My understanding is that we have, I think, an additional 15 million sheep over the last five years because of good conditions and a number of other factors. There has certainly been a boom in terms of sheep, and the prices have been very, very good in recent months—they have, of course, dropped considerably.

In my many discussions both with producers and with peak bodies, a number have indicated that this is part of the usual peaks and troughs they have experienced in business, including and not limited to the sheep industry as well as other agricultural industries and, indeed, many other businesses. Notwithstanding that, that doesn't, of course, relieve the pressure on those businesses as they experience it.

The many factors are topics of discussion at many of the meetings that I have, but it is fair to say that specifically live sheep export hasn't formed a predominant role in those discussions. It has certainly been mentioned, mainly in passing, by most of the producers that I have spoken with. More of an issue is their concerns around drought in the Eastern States, which is causing people in expectation of those drought conditions to be reducing the size of their flocks.

Another factor which I don't think the honourable member mentioned is around the capacity of processing facilities to actually process the volume of sheep that is there at the moment. It may be that it was mentioned and I didn't hear; there was a fair bit of other noise in the chamber at the time.

I think those issues are certainly top of mind for a lot of people wanting to be able to take their sheep or lambs to the processing facilities but those facilities not being able to process the volume that they might like. I know that one major facility has been running only one shift because of difficulties in gaining labour to run a second shift. Hopefully, some of that will begin to improve. We know that labour shortages are issues across many, many industries, including the agricultural industries.

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