Christine Brown and Kevin McLean, Banksia Downs Grazing, Coomberdale
As sandplain livestock producers, we have a vested interest in the Keep the Sheep movement. We’ve participated in the Perth and Muresk rallies, written (too) many submissions, emailed politicians (with little to no response), spoken at the Muresk Committee Hearing, and painted, stickered, and bannered almost everything we own.
The next step was to head to Canberra with 50 other similarly minded West Australians. Our region was well represented with five sheep producers, Jamie Hurst, Carl Moltoni, Tracy Humphry, and ourselves. We flew out very early together on Monday September 9, proudly wearing our KTS shirts, caps and scarves – we were hard to miss!
The National Ag Rally was held on Tuesday 10 September at Federation Mall, the lawns directly in front of Parliament House. Mid-morning, a convoy of 50 trucks and vehicles made their way around State Circle, a ring road circling the ‘big house on the hill’. We waved our banners from two overpass bridges. We thought more vehicles would be in the convoy and, sadly, Canberrans don’t seem to engage like Perth city did at the WA rally.
The rally included many guest speakers, making large reassuring promises regarding the banning of live sheep exports, water buybacks, renewable energy, work visa requirements, the diesel fuel rebate and more – I guess we’ll see what happens in all of these spaces. Live music, food trucks, 2500 people, a glorious spring day, Liberal and National politicians galore, but no sign of anyone from Labor — apparently they were busy having their photos taken inside the Parliament House courtyard!
Did we make a difference? Unsure, but we did get noticed, and heard, and seen! The KTS stand was very busy all day – people are interested and they have questions. Many signed the petition, donated, and brought merchandise (available at the KTS website). What the Rally showed was that the Australian Ag. Industry is both united, and fed up with much political interference at our expense.
A number of Keep the Sheepers attended Question Time in the afternoon. It’s incredibly disappointing and frustrating to witness adults — people who are supposed to be making the best decisions for the entire country, and lead by example —perform the way they did. As a group, we made the choice to all walk (stomp) out of Question Time early. Again, we were noticed and seen. The room clearly felt our anger and disgust!
Aside from the rally, we got to know some wonderful people. We all went to dinner on both nights, with lots of chatter and laughs. We left Canberra late Wednesday evening, a cohesive and vocal group who are committed to keep on telling the Keep the Sheep story.
