In an opinion piece to Beef Central, Dr Tony Brightling, a vet, exporter and long time industry stalwart has revealed that the sheep live ex trade will end on economic grounds regardless of the ban and that industry and farmers should just take what they can rather than fighting a battle they will lose regardless of ban. Better be constructive than destructive is the advice.
Coming from anyone else, this opinion piece would no doubt be rubbished or rejected. But it is hard to reject when it comes from someone of Dr Brightling's stature in this industry and his extensive knowledge of the trade.
Hopefully, Senators read the article before they debate the fate of this already dying trade.

After three days of debate, the Bill to end live sheep export today passed a vote in the House of Representatives. The National Party introduced a Motion in the Senate this evening in a bid to instigate another Inquiry into the Bill which would have stopped it progressing any further for months. Fortunately, key crossbenchers saw through this delaying tactic and it was voted down. Next week it goes to the Senate. So...first step complete but job not yet done.

Regardless, it is worth celebrating this historic vote in Australia's parliament that recognised the importance of animal welfare and sentience.

Yemeni Houthis have attacked the livestock vessel MV Shorthorn Express overnight. The Shorthorn Express was carrying animals and heading from Portugal to Haifa Port.  It is unclear the extent of the damage (if any) at this stage but is has been diverted to Malta.The drone missile attack occurred in the Mediterranean Sea, where the MV Bahijah will be headed from Australia shortly.
 
The Bahijah is due into Fremantle Port on 28 June to take Australian animals the long route around the Cape of Good Hope, through the Mediterranean to Israel. The live export industry apparently have no qualms about sending winter-acclimatised Australian animals into a searing northern hemisphere. Interestingly, the industry continues to proclaim that the Northern Hemisphere Summer moratorium for sheep was entirely their idea and self imposed (their moratorium was from June to August despite the AVA advice not to ship from May to October) to improve animal welfare. Perhaps only  if there was a risk of being regulated...??

See:
https://shafaq.com/en/Iraq/IRI-Ansarallah-target-ships-in-Haifa-the-Mediterranean
https://www.marinelink.com/news/houthis-claim-attack-four-ships-israels-514669
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/23/yemens-houthis-claim-joint-raid-on-israeli-ships-with-iraqi-militia
https://fakti.bg/en/world/890987-houthis-attack-merchant-ships-in-haifa-port

ABC reported that hundreds of Hajj pilgrims have died this week in Mecca including an Australian man. Temperatures on Tuesday reached 47 degrees Celsius in Mecca and the sacred sites in and around the city, according to the Saudi National Center for Meteorology. The extreme heat apparently made it difficult to keep people safe. 
The temperature at Jeddah, where Australian sheep were offloaded from the MV Jawan on 11 June is much milder but where did those sheep go after they were offloaded? If they went inland, towards Mecca, they too could be in extreme temperatures. But rest assured ESCAS will take care of them as it solves all end-destination health and welfare problems for Australian animals overseas.