KEEP the Sheep is a grassroots movement born to fundamentally take action against the Federal Government’s ban on live sheep exports.

Keep the Sheep key spokesperson and livestock transport contractor, Ben Sutherland from Western Australia, formerly of the Hamilton district, spoke at the opening of Sheepvention 2024 and presented a short clip to raise awareness about the campaign to keep live sheep exports going.

Mr Sutherland said the campaign began when the abolishment of exporting sheep by sea was called.

“It started when Murray Watts (previous agriculture minister) came to Perth for an hour and announced that it was done,” he said.

“We’ve known this has been coming.

“They were going to put the legislation through – four of us got together and said how we going to do this, how are we going to manage this; we put our heads together and started the campaign.

“It affects me, it affects our community.

“You shut down the industry – you take 10 or 15 people out of the community it affects everything – it’s a big chunk. It takes a fair bit of money out of the town.

“Local contractors like myself and shearing contractors, they’re the major employers of the town.

“You have the same thing here in Hamilton, you take that out of the town, the town’s going to die.

“School shuts, the IGA doesn’t function, there’s no sporting clubs - there’s that sort of thing. That’s what drove us to do what we’re doing.

“Last month we had a rally in Perth with 1700 vehicles including livestock trucks, cars, utes, whatever else that could tag along with 3500 people.

“We went through the centre of Perth and that forced the government to get a House of Reps enquiry.

“They gave us two weeks to get it done – we got it done but they only heard 600 of the 13,000 submissions.”

“The submissions were coming in thick and fast – only 800 uploaded.”

Mr Sutherland said the submissions were still up on the Parliamentary website.

“They haven’t consulted industry, they haven’t done it properly,” he said.

“After that they announced the bill to go through the House of Reps.

“So, we flew to Canberra as a delegation – you probably heard about that.

“Everywhere we looked they guillotined our amendments.

“Bridget McKenzie was part of it supporting us – whatever we did they guillotined us.

“We only lost by three votes.

“But we had them worried.

“We had a meeting with Albanese and Watts on a sitting day. They actually contacted us to have a meeting.

“You could see they were worried.

“Now we’re letter boxing, we’re door knocking – we’re targeting the three (key) seats in WA – Tangney, Hasluck and the new seat of Bullwinkel which our Livestock Collective representative, Holly Ludeman is contesting a seat for the Liberal Party.

“The more funds we can raise the more seats we can attack because they can’t do this to us.”

The campaigners believe the current Australian government has ignored the significant improvements that have been made Australia a world leader in animal welfare; they believe the sheep industry has been the backbone of rural towns for over a hundred years but are concerned it could disappear.

They have stated their campaign is bigger than just politics, it’s about people’s lives and livelihoods.

“They can’t take 30 per cent of my business away,” Mr Sutherland said.

“With some blokes it’s up to 60 per cent in my industry – they can’t take that away without talking to me.

“I’ll be damned if I’m working so hard to build a business for it to be taken away.”

Mr Sutherland said a petition they’ve got running is up to 80,000 signatures.

“It took the RSPCA three months to get 40,000 signatures, which was the leverage for them to ... ban the industry.

“In six weeks, we got over 50,000 signatures.

“We’ve amassed over $450,000 in donations –and that’s all mums’ and dads’ donations – that’s not big corporate investors – that is mums and dads putting $10, $20 or $30 in – so it’s a massive effort.

“There will be a national rally in Canberra around the 10th of September - same scenario as what we did in Perth.”

Part of their campaign has been to launch a petition that can be signed online registering support to see the ban overturned.

So far, they have received 62,000 signatures on the petition.

Farmers and supporters have taken on the Australian Government over its ban on live sheep exports and announced a ‘Farmy Army’ that have protested against the policy including rallies.

They have also been letterboxing homes in suburban Perth calling on people to sign up online.

So far, they have raised over $400,000 to target key election seats

Keep the Sheep spokesperson and rally organiser, Paul Brown said the unprecedented crowds in Perth and at the House of Representatives hearing into the live sheep ban bill proved that the campaign had the support of thousands of people on the ground.

“We’re not letting up,” he said.

“We have also had hundreds of people email us to find out how to be part of the campaign.

“This ban is poor policy and we’re now inviting people who support us to sign up online and help us take to the streets as part of a ‘farmers army’ that will campaign against the ban to Albo and Agriculture Minister, when they visit WA next.”

More information and advice on how to help is available at keepthesheep.com.au