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.