Nationals leader David Littleproud has made a clarion call for a "convoy to Canberra" that would take grassroots protests against Labor's live sheep by sea ban in Western Australia on the road to the seat of federal government power.
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In a press conference with WAFarmers president John Hassell and WAFarmers livestock section president Geoff Pearson, Mr Littleproud said the issue had resonated on the east coast because of the perceived threat of the "ideology" behind the live sheep ban filtering through the agriculture industry.
Mr Hassell said the local agriculture industry was intent on turning WA into a battlefield state by targeting marginal seats with information campaigns "to show what a rotten policy it is, and how to push the price of food up to the average Australian and reduce jobs".
"It's a deliberate attack on our property rights as farmers. We are seeing attacks in every front, in every state, whether it be water in New South Wales, whether it be the Great Artesian Basin, whether it be power lines in Victoria," he said.
"We've got to fight it and we intend to win it."
The marginal seats identified for targeting in WA are Tangney (2.37pc), Hasluck (5.95pc), Pearce (8.98pc), Swan (8.99pc) and Cowan (10.7pc).
Mr Pearson said the groundswell was going "further than the sheep industry".
"It is an attack on agriculture, and this is something we can't sustain," he said.
"You've got the cost of living for people and the everyday Australians are feeling it. And this constant attack on agriculture, we're feeling it right the way through.
"It's a national issue now (and) it has to stop. We need support from the everyday people out there to make it work for us."
ACM-Agri has previously reported that a new advocacy body aspiring to be a representative force for Australian farmers and rural communities and borne out of "utter frustration" with the current advocacy model and politicians who "cast them into the wilderness again and again" has arrived on the scene.
Meanwhile, Mr Littleproud said on Friday that he had "never seen anything galvanise primary producers and industry across the country" as the proposed live sheep by sea ban.
"This is a line in the sand that they can't let it be crossed," he said.
"So there is concern, and that's why I think it is important that we do take this convoy to Canberra and every farmer and every industry group along the way should get on that bus with their Western Australian friends and be on Canberra and let them know, because Anthony Albanese and Murray Watt don't even have the courage to come here and look you in the eye.
"This is already seeing not just dramatic prices drop here in Western Australia, but also the East Coast.
"There's also this thing, that everyone still remembers on the East Coast that you may forget about, but when the drought broke in 2020-21, it was Western Australians that saved the East Coast.
"There was two million sheep that came across the Nullarbor and saved the East Coast, that got us up and going again. If we don't have that, and we are now seeing the decimation industry here, we are vulnerable, and then that tears away your food security, whether you're on the West Coast or on the East Coast."
Mr Littleproud also repeated an "ironclad commitment" that the Coalition would reinstate the live sheep by sea export industry out of Western Australia if elected.
The comments were made as an parliamentary advisory report into the Export Control Amendment (Ending Live Sheep Exports by Sea) Bill 2024 delivered no surprises in recommending that the bill be passed to "absolutely" end the trade by May 1, 2028.
The Agriculture Committee House of Representatives Standing Committee Inquiry, chaired by Labor MP for Paterson Meryl Swanson, also recommended that the government only "consider" making additional funding available to support the transition, "potentially through the 2026 stocktake of industry progress".
The Albanese government has come under fire from industry stakeholders since unveiling its industry transition package on May 11 with stakeholders saying the $107 million on offer was not enough.
