Regulatory

Australian politician seeks to capsize livestock shipping

An Australian politician introduced legislation to parliament yesterday to ban the export of live sheep.

The government has introduced a series of changes to livestock shipments in the past week following a graphic exposé of conditions onboard one livestock carrier carried in a documentary on terrestrial television last month. The changes announced by the agricultural minister last week stopped short of an outright ban and have come in for swift criticism, not least by Splash’s own livestock expert, Dr Lynn Simpson.

Now backbench lawmaker Sussan Ley is trying to push a bill through parliament to ban the export of live sheep.

“A 60 kg sheep will be allocated space equivalent to just under two A4 pieces of paper,” Ley told parliament. The vote is expected to be very close.

Australia is on course to export 1.9m live sheep this year.

Sam Chambers

Starting out with the Informa Group in 2000 in Hong Kong, Sam Chambers became editor of Maritime Asia magazine as well as East Asia Editor for the world’s oldest newspaper, Lloyd’s List. In 2005 he pursued a freelance career and wrote for a variety of titles including taking on the role of Asia Editor at Seatrade magazine and China correspondent for Supply Chain Asia. His work has also appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and The International Herald Tribune.
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