Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise to give a big shout-out to the grain growers of Western Australia and also to update the House on the plight of sheep producers across Western Australia. Let's start with the good news. This year—and I had an update from Co-operative Bulk Handling today—the Western Australian farmers and grain growers produced a record crop of 27 million tonnes, roughly. That is the estimate of GIWA. The dominant grain handler in Western Australia, CBH, received 24.2 million tonnes. That is 1.3 million tonnes higher than the previous record receivable, so that is an amazing achievement by our Western Australian grain growers.

It wasn't a fantastic season—the rains came just in time in most instances—but the crop production was outstanding. That is testament to the production gains that have been made by the industry, whether that be through improved machinery, sowing, seeding and harvesting techniques or whether it be through improved varieties, such as Roundup Ready or GM canola, which has allowed growers to sow early, sow dry and take advantage of every drop of rain. In the case of cereals, some of the new varieties are just phenomenal yielders. To the grain growers of WA: well done. To CBH: also well done. Two of my girls worked on the receival points. It was a big job, with 5,000 volunteers. They did a wonderful job of receiving the crop in record time. As machines get bigger, trucks and transport get bigger.

But it's not all good news across the Western Australian wheat belt and the Great Southern. In the sheep industry, we are seeing dramatic declines in numbers now. Ironically, that has been good for prices. Prices in the sheep industry at the moment are actually quite good. However, we've seen a dramatic drop in the number of breeding stock, which is now leading to abattoirs and processing plants being short of numbers. Just before we came back to Canberra, I was told by my local processor that they were dropping a day a week off their work schedule because they can't get enough numbers. Now, this is very early days in the impact of the government's phase-out of the live-export policy, and the results that many of us have predicted are starting to be manifested.

Confidence in the sheep industry in Western Australia collapsed in 2022, after the May 2022 election, when the current government won with a policy to phase out the live-export trade. The Western Australian sheep flock has traditionally been based on a self-replacing merino flock and the merino wether. The male progeny has traditionally been sold to the live-export trade. That self-replacing merino, as opposed to a British breed—a crossbreed, as we call them, or a shedding sheep—needs to be shorn. It needs to be crutched. There's quite a lot of animal husbandry that goes into that. That supports the shearing teams in our country towns, which in turn puts a fair bit of money through the local pub. Kids go to school in the small local schools.

We predicted that this would decimate those towns, and that's exactly what it is doing. Sheep numbers have dropped in Western Australia from 12.2 million sheep in 2022. The only accurate figures we've got from DPIRD are that they dropped to 9.8 million sheep by 2023. I can tell you anecdotally—I go to the saleyards, I talk to stock agents, I talk to truckies—that sheep numbers are collapsing. People are selling breeding stock as quickly as they can get rid of them. Ironically enough, the good prices that we're seeing today are leading to growers getting out of the industry. They can get good money for the breeding stock which are going to the local abattoirs and being slaughtered. Those sheep will not be breeding a lamb next year so the processors will find it even harder to find stock next year. Now, if you can't keep a many, many multimillion dollar plant operating five days a week, then the viability of that plant becomes questionable. The two biggest abattoirs in my part of the world will find it hard to keep the 350 staff on. We are seeing the manifestation of the government's live export policy play out in front of our very eyes.