Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) | Hansard source

By the end of the former government, that number had fallen from 2.1 million sheep being exported in 2014-15 to 475,000 sheep being exported in 2021-22. So these people who want to characterise themselves as the defenders of the sheep industry were the very people who saw an 80 per cent fall in the number of sheep being exported by sea while they were in office.

The truth is that this industry has been in decline for about 20 years. At the very same time, what has been going through the roof? It is the export of sheepmeat. You may not be aware of this, but exports of sheepmeat are part of the agriculture sector as well. People who work meat processing are part of the agriculture supply chain. That is the part of this industry that has been going through the roof, with the potential to grow further.

We know that there's a lot of hypocrisy on display here. I did remind the chamber during question time today that Labor is not alone in supporting the end of the live sheep export industry. We do know that the now Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Ms Sussan Ley, introduced a private member's bill in 2018 seeking to ban the trade, stating:

The live sheep trade is in terminal decline …

…   …   …

Unfortunately this is an industry with an operating model built on the suffering of animals.

Those were the words of the deputy Liberal leader only about four years ago. Of course, she was backed in by now Senator Henderson, who was then a member of the House of Representatives.