Lawmaker in bid to ban live sheep export from Australia

SYDNEY: An Australian backbencher introduced legislation to parliament to ban the export of live sheep after the death of 2,400 animals on a ship bound for the Middle East, an incident that led to widespread criticism of the A$250mil (RM749mil) industry.

The Bill threatens to expose fractures within the ruling coalition government, which last week introduced tougher oversight of the shipments but stopped short of banning them altogether.

Backbench lawmaker Sussan Ley said the new rules did not go far enough.

“A 60kg sheep will be allocated space equivalent to just under two A4 pieces of paper,” Ley told parliament.

While the bulk of Australia’s meat exports are processed, markets such as the Middle East and Indonesia prefer to buy live animals.

Australia’s chief commodity forecaster in March said it expected 1.9 million live sheep to be sold this year, worth A$250million.

“For Australian farmers, animal welfare is our highest concern. We need to fix the industry, not ban it,” said Fiona Simson, president of the National Farmers Federation.

The proposed legislation puts Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in a political bind.

Emboldened by opinion polls that show nearly three quarters of voters support an end to the trade, two members of Turnbull’s Liberal Party have said they support Ley’s Bill, joining forces with the opposition Labor Party.

The rural-based Nationals, the junior member of the coalition government, opposes a ban, insisting it could inflict widespread damage on Australia’s agricultural sector.

“This strikes at the heart of the coalition arrangement,” said Nick Economou, senior lecturer in Australian politics at Monash University in Melbourne.