Newly elected Federal opposition Leader Sussan Ley affirms her support of the live sheep export industry

Newly-elected Federal opposition Leader Sussan Ley has wasted no time reassuring farmers she wholeheartedly supports the live sheep export industry, seven years after she first called for it to be banned. The Liberal politician who in 2018 crossed the floor to try and ban the industry won the Liberal Party leadership ballot on Tuesday against Liberal MP for Hume, Angus Taylor. Ms Ley made history as the first female leader of the 81 year old party, and also the first regionally based leader since 1983. Mr Taylor — who grew up on a family sheep and cattle farm in south-east New South Wales — was pipped at the post for the position, 29 to 25 after a vote of party MPs. For years Ms Ley’s position on live exports had been called into question, however just hours after being appointed the Liberal leader on May 13, she doubled down on her support of the industry. “My position on the trade is that it should continue. It is safe, it is reliable, and it meets the animal welfare standards that it should,” she said. “After I became deputy and travelled over I met individually with farmers — with representatives of the pastoral industry and WA farmers — and I assured them of my stance. . . and they would remember those conversations. . . and I can assure them my position remains the same.” Ms Ley had been at odds with her colleagues for years after introducing a private member’s Bill to phase out live sheep exports in 2018. She was later promoted to the ministry, forcing her to vote with the government against her own Bill, but said her personal view on the “awful trade” had not changed. She remained quiet ahead of the 2022 Federal election but broke party ranks again after Labor’s win, telling Sky News she would stand by her long-held position to end the almost exclusively WA-based trade. Ms Ley first backflipped on her controversial opposition to live sheep exports in early 2023, claiming she was “on side” with the Coalition in supporting the trade she tried to ban only a year earlier. Ms Ley said she had changed her mind after “reflecting” on “improvements” made by the industry after visiting Western Australian farmers, commending their “openness” and “transparency”. “I am on side with the position that the Coalition has enunciated following improvements to the live sheep trade,” she said at the time. “We needed to improve the conditions on live sheep ships, and I’m pleased that has now happened.” Ms Ley later backtracked when reminded of her comments by reporters during a visit to Albany in April, 2023. “I wasn’t actually saying precisely that (‘we don’t need this trade’),” she replied. “What I was saying was that as the trade itself declines because of further onshore manufacturing, there are dynamics at play that mean that as onshore manufacturing and processing of sheep increases in volume, the trade naturally decreases.” The future of a Coalition partnership was unclear at the time of print, but Ms Ley would have to work with Nationals leader David Littleproud should the two parties join forces to combat Labor’s Lower House majority. Mr Littleproud was a staunch critic of Ms Ley’s private members Bill, at the time labelling a live export ban a “dumb idea”. While he did not mention Ms Ley by name when speaking about the proposed phase-out, he was a staunch supporter of keeping the industry intact. In April 2023, Ms Ley expressed concerns Labor would come for the live cattle trade next. “We are very concerned about the effect on the whole Top End of anything that seeks to disrupt a vital industry for the (Northern) Territory, which is the live cattle industry,” she told reporters in Darwin. “So I share the concerns of the Northern Territory cattlemen and women and I do hope that the (Federal) agriculture minister (Murray Watt), who is in town today, is absolutely listening.”