Comment on ABC 2025 Election Watch Party
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks agoHere in Albany those fucking keep the sheep signs are everywhere, a noisy minority indeed.
Personally I’m not sympathetic. Farmers just have a lot of tax concessions. It’s been plain to see for years that live export was going to stop sooner or later. If you were exposed to that risk, well, you should have taken action to manage it.
Gorgritch_umie_killa@aussie.zone 3 weeks ago
Yeah, they’ve been insane all over my area as well. I struggle to remember any campaign that has been so active.
I haven’t read an argument for it that doesn’t rely in the greater part on emotion. I’ve seen very little sober argument for the negative effects of the ban.
The key argument i’ve read is it delivers the industry into an abbotoir monopoly, this is undoubtedly a problem, which is in old Economic parlance a market failure. I’m slowly going to the Mariana Mazzucato view of Economics, so i see the live export closure as an opportunity for market shaping, by the stakeholders, gov, busines individuals, farmers, involved in it.
An idea the WA Government should consider is a government owned abbotoir which can set a steady floor on the prices farmers get for the sheep. Sorry if i get a little gross hereafter. But the meat from this abbotoir doesn’t necessarily have to find a profitable buyer, but can be used to deliver high protein food to disadvantaged communities here, and internationally. Abbotoir meat purchases could constitute a part of the Australian international food aid budget, or sent out to aboriginal communities, food shelters in the city, or island communities or nations in the pacific.
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Ah, sorry… the “negative effects of the ban” are the deleterious effects on graziers. There are many farmers who had a flock worth $500k which is now worth $100k. Some large graziers are not breeding more sheep because they can’t sell the ones they have.
A lot of these operations are big businesses and in some cases the existing format just isn’t viable any more.
As I said I’m not very sympathetic because that’s just how things go if you want to run a business, but it’s definitely a big deal for some people.
For example, a farmer might be in their late 60s and saying “I’ve been working with sheep for 50 years and it’s all I know” and for their farm to continue they need to transition to cropping or some such.
One silly argument against live export that I heard some people parroting is that if Australia doesn’t do it some other country will and the standards of care for the sheep will be much lower than ours. That’s just bullshit IMO.
The requirement for live export is, as in all things, a money thing. It’s cheaper to ship them live because you don’t need refrigeration, and you don’t need Australian-Standards-Compliant abattoirs paying Australian wages.
Gorgritch_umie_killa@aussie.zone 3 weeks ago
Yeah, there’s definitely a risk premium that can come into proceedings where decisions and their implementations are rolling through quickly, can’t think of a specific international example… oh wait, yes i can :)…, but the policy for the live export ban is super slow, predictable and with plenty of finacial supports.
Even if that did happen, big if, thats happening all over the world in all kinds of areas. We can only control what we do, and attempt to set a better example where we can. It is such a bullshit, and cynical argument. As soon as i hear that, i generally start thinking the other person is debating in bad faith.
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
I actually just had a read of some of the submissions from farmers.
I’ll be honest in that they do raise some compelling points. Notably, as a major exporter Australia presently sets the standard of care for all nations, so I think there is some truth to the idea that animals will suffer more after we withdraw.
However, I hadn’t realised that a phase out is in place. 3 years doesn’t seem an unreasonable period in which to transition.