Commuters be warned: the roads may be as packed as a livestock saleyard pen on Friday morning when truckers, farmers and their supporters drive through Perth as part of the Keep the Sheep protest movement.
The truck convoy is part of a rally that aims to draw attention to the federal government’s phase-out of live sheep exports under legislation passed last year.
The government wants to end all live sheep trade by May 2028, and has promised a $139.7 million transition package to help navigate the stormy waters ahead for farmers and exporters.
Keep the Sheep convoy – affected roads
Metro roads include:
- Kwinana Freeway
- Mitchell Freeway
- Reid Highway
- Stirling Highway
- Canning Highway
- Tonkin Highway
- Great Eastern Highway
CBD roads include:
- The Esplanade
- Mounts Bay Road
- Wellington Street
- Hay Street
- Causeway and Riverside Drive
But, as you may well be aware, there’s a federal election coming up, and the Keep the Sheep movement is drumming up support for the ban to be reversed.
David Vandenberghe, chairman of sheep and cattle grower group ASHEEP & BEEF, said it was generally rare to see farmers pushed to the point they felt the need to publicly protest.
“It shows the high level of anger and frustration toward the Albanese government’s decision to shut down WA’s sheep live export trade and the lack of understanding or consultation in reaching that position,” he said.
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“There are now over 110,000 signatures on a petition to stop the ban on sheep live exports.
“WA’s sheep industry is seeing huge damage from the shutdown of one of our key markets. Our industry has made a significant investment in reforming the trade over the last decade and Australia now leads the world in best practice standards, but this has been disregarded.”
