News
Government spends 49% of 3 year budget spruiking live export policy
The Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council said today that the Albanese Government had spent a staggering $2.4 million advertising the ban on exporting live sheep by sea. This represented 49% of all advertising by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry since 2022.
Calling the spend “absolutely galling”, ALEC CEO Mark Harvey-Sutton said it was a gross misuse of taxpayer funds and came at the expense of other important issues.
“What we can see is that the Department has spent a staggering sum advertising the policy. Our calculations show that 49% of all DAFF advertising since 2022 was dedicated to the ban.”
Despite biosecurity scares that have taken place in this term, the Department spent nowhere near this amount, even though the consequences of a potential FMD outbreak have been modelled at costing the Australian economy up to $80 billion.[1]
“It’s clear that this advertising was being used to spruik the policy into east coast locations where the Government hopes there is sympathy for the ban, rather than to farmers who will be hurt by it.”
Despite having ramifications for the sheep industry nationally, the ban will affect WA the hardest. However, the government has placed ads in regions that don’t export sheep, such as Bega in NSW and even running an ad in the Sydney Morning Herald. At Senate Estimates, the Government claimed the majority of the ads ran in WA, however documents obtained under Freedom of Information suggest that this is not the case.
Mr Harvey-Sutton said that the decision to spend such a large proportion of the budget on this particular policy and advertising it to unaffected people was ‘politically motivated’.
“The directive to spend such an enormous chunk of taxpayer funds on promoting the live sheep ban would have had to be signed off by the Minister.”
“This is just another slight from a Government that doesn’t care about farmers, their families or the 3000 people who will lose their jobs because of this horrendous policy.”
MEDIA
0491 276 036 media@livexcouncil.com.au
[1] https://www.agriculture.gov.au/biosecurity-trade/pests-diseases-weeds/animal/fmd/aboutfmd#the-consequences-of-an-fmd-incursion-in-australia