The ABC reported that Australia is on track to have its biggest year for mutton exports, with more than 200,000 tonnes sent overseas in the first 10 months of 2024. According to Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), Australia has processed nearly 1 million sheep over the past four weeks, which is up 42 per cent on the same period last year, and up 72 per cent on the same period in 2022.
So....what are Keep the Sheep banging on about and why is live ex so important? Who knows? There is clearly a huge demand and a lucrative market for exported mutton making a mockery of the necessity to send live sheep. So, the obvious choice is to Kill the Sheep here....!

In an opinion piece in Splash 24/7 (Live Animal Exports: False Hopes on a Dying Fleet) , experienced former AAV Dr Lynn Simpson aired similar views to long time exporter and export veterinarian Dr Tony Brightling. Both argue that regardless of legislation, the trade is dying due to lack of ships. Both have proposed similar reasons for that. Dr Simpson points out that Australia is not even a big world player in live sheep export terms these days. If we examine that point further and compare number of sheep exported from each country in 2023, Australia comes in at number 7:

Millions of Live Sheep exported per country 2023
Sudan 5
Somalia 4.5
European Union 2.8
Romania 2.3
Spain 1.4
Jordan 1.3 (so why do we export live sheep to Jordan and where are Australian sheep going really?)
Australia 0.68 

CEO of ALEC Mark Harvey Sutton has hit back and claimed Tony Brightling, an experienced live export figure is “Drastically off course” with his analysis of the viability of the live sheep export trade. In an odd statement, Harvey Sutton claimed that Brightling "has twice now commented in support of Labor’s malign ban on live sheep exports".  Even if we ignore the wording, this is a strange assertion as no-one reading the two Brightling opinion pieces would find any support of Labor's legislative changes. Both pieces would appear to claim that the trade is dying anyway and would seem (to an non-exporter) to be urging farmers not to invest in fighting something not worth fighting for and to suggest farmers move on, get more money out of the government, change practices etc rather than being hurt emotionally and financially by a trade that is dying with or without Labor's legislation.
And of course Harvey Sutton provided no explanation as to why there have been no big ships into Fremantle since the end of the NHS summer (September). The Al Messilah may be being patched up in China. But where is the Maysora? the Al Kuwait? the Ocean Drover? Anna Marra (Awassi Express)? Where are the exporters if all is so rosy? Could Tony Brighting perhaps be correct...more money and less red tape elsewhere so why bother with Australia?

In an opinion piece in Beef Central, long time live exporter and live export stalwart Dr Tony Brightling, again expressed concerns about the viability of the live export sheep trade from Australia.

Brightling cites the distance from market, inability to supply year-round, animal welfare pressures, regulatory constraints and costs, regional hostilities and now also a shortage of shipping as unsurmountable obstacles to the long term viability in addition to winding back legislative change.

He again analyses lack of ships (there are no big ships coming into Freo currently) and points out that new builds would be required. "Convincing ship owners to invest the hundreds of millions of dollars required to build a new fleet of large livestock vessels that meet AMSA standards, to service an industry in its death throws – well, good luck with that one."

And he sums up "No amount of political posturing or farming community advocacy is going to change these fundamentals. There is no realistic prospect of a viable live sheep export trade after 1 May 2028. Time to move on."

See: https://www.beefcentral.com/news/opinion-what-does-the-future-hold-for-australias-live-sheep-trade/

So there it is....in 2024, we send cattle to China (21 days) and Vietnam (often >10 days) and a vet is not required by OUR Commonwealth Government. It seems that even under Joh, some things were better in 1985!!