CANBERRA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Australia's agriculture minister has welcomed the parliament's passage of a ban on live sheep exports.
The Senate on Monday night passed a government legislation that will ban live sheep exports from Australia by May 1, 2028, after the bill passed the lower house of parliament in June.
Murray Watt, the minister for agriculture, fisheries and forestry, said on Tuesday that he was very pleased that the legislation has been passed.
"We now have certainty around the future of this industry," he told reporters in Canberra.
"The industry knows, once and for all, the date that it will be phased out."
The ban on live sheep exports was promised by the Labor Party in the lead-up to the 2022 general election in which it won power. Labor has ruled out banning live cattle exports.
Watt said on Tuesday that a majority of Australians supported the sheep export ban, including in Western Australia, which is the only Australian state or territory with a live sheep export industry.
The government in May announced a 107 million Australian dollar (about 71.17 million U.S. dollar) package to help the industry transition.
According to government figures, the value of Australia's live sheep exports has declined from 415 million Australian dollars (276.04 million U.S. dollars) in 2002-03 to 77 million Australian dollars (51.22 million U.S. dollars) in 2022-23.
By comparison, Australia's sheep meat exports were worth 4.5 billion Australian dollars (2.99 billion U.S. dollars) in 2022-23.
Supporters of the live sheep export industry on Tuesday gathered at Parliament House to protest the ban.
Mark Harvey-Sutton, chief executive of NGO the Livestock Exporters' Council, told reporters that the ban would be devastating for the livestock export community and said the government would regret the move. ■
