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Strong community support for ending live sheep export

RSPCA Australia will today appear at an NSW parliamentary inquiry that has shown overwhelming community support for phasing out live sheep export – with more than 95% of submissions lodged during the consultation period supporting a phase out.
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  • RSPCA Australia
  • Wednesday, 18 December 2024

RSPCA Australia will today appear at a NSW parliamentary inquiry that has shown overwhelming community support for phasing out live sheep export – with more than 95% of submissions lodged during the consultation period supporting a phase out.

The RSPCA’s submission, as well as other submissions, also point to there being no evidence of a direct impact on NSW at all – despite the extensive volume of economic analysis.

The fact is that Australia’s live sheep exports represent only 1% of the total value of Australia’s sheep meat and wool exports, and around 0.1% of the total value of Australia’s agricultural exports.

The RSPCA has consistently highlighted contemporary animal welfare science and evidence to inform decision makers of the inherent and unfixable animal welfare risks in exporting live sheep by sea, and the NSW inquiry is no different.

This is why the Federal Parliament passed the Export Control Amendment (Ending Live Sheep Exports by Sea) Act 2024 on 1 July 2024 and are providing transition support to assist industry and farmers to phase out the practice by 1 May 2028.

The submissions to the NSW inquiry, which is about the “impact of the phase-out of Australian live sheep exports by sea on NSW”, has not just reaffirmed the reasons for this decision yet again, but also highlighted that there’s no evidence of a direct impact on NSW.

In fact, recent agricultural reports from Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) and other industry groups suggest that Australian sheep producers have increasing confidence in their industry and the growth of export of lamb and mutton supports a long and successful future for sheep meat exports.

“The NSW Government themselves say that NSW is not directly involved in the live export trade. There is no export of live animals from NSW ports,” RSPCA Australia Chief Science Officer, Dr Suzanne Fowler said.

“The NSW community, like the rest of the country, has strongly shown their support for ending live sheep exports,” Dr Fowler said.

“Over many decades, we’ve seen time and time again that live sheep export has inherent animal welfare issues, is unfixable, and as a result does not have community support.

“The facts are clear, the export of live sheep by sea now belongs in the past.”

Over 95% of the submissions and surveys lodged for this NSW inquiry support the phase out. Most of the submissions from individuals referred to people finding live sheep export unacceptable, cruel or distressing.

Dr Suzanne Fowler, Chief Science Officer, RSPCA Australia will appear at the NSW inquiry into the impact of the phase out of Australian live sheep exports by sea on New South Wales at 11:00am AEDT, Wednesday 18 December 2024.

The RSPCA submission to the inquiry can be found here.

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