Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has confirmed the government will ban live sheep exports by both air and sea, but the industry council wants further clarification.
But the new Agriculture Minister insisted this was not the case.The minister's comments on air exports came as a surprise to the Australian Livestock Exporters Council CEO Mark Harvey-Sutton, who said he would seek further clarification.
"Air performance is one of the best ways to transport livestock going around. So, to try and implement a phase out of that strikes me is completely unnecessary."Industry hoping for change"What [Senator Watt is] saying is a correct articulation of the policy that Labor took to the election. But what I do know was that he emphasised the need to work with industry. He emphasised the fact that there is no timeline on that phase out," he said.
"I want to look at what more we can be do doing to take Australian agriculture further up the value chain," he said.