Report details live export ban economic impact on North Eastern Wheatbelt
Image credit: Victorian Farmers Federation
The North Eastern Wheatbelt Region of Councils (NEWROC) has released a 26-page report that assesses the economic and social impact of the Albanese government live export ban.
NEWROC comprises of seven local WA governments - Dowerin, Koorda, Mt Marshall, Mukinbudin, Nungarin, Trayning and Wyalkatchem, with delegations of councillors visiting both Canberra and Perth this week to ensure the findings of the report are known.
“The potential impact on the regional NEWROC economy (is estimated) at between $39 million and $128 million in economic output over 20 years. This is further exacerbated when the centrality of sheep farm expenditure, employment and incomes to the functioning of local and regional communities is also considered, which adds a further $21 million to $35 million in economic impact.”
Well-known Wheatbelt local and NEWROC Executive Officer, Caroline Robinson spoke to the media on the report and told AAP “We’re meeting with members of parliament on all sides so that we can share the study and the impact of this policy.”
Members of NEWROC met with Liberal MLC Steve Martin who had the following to say: “The message is clear: this proposed ban will have a devastating impact on small regional communities across WA. The NEWROC report shows the ban would have a significant economic impact on their region, and that result would be replicated across livestock-producing areas of the state.”
Some of the key points:
In 2020/21 an estimated 4,305 WA businesses were involved in live export, with 180 of those being local to the NEWROC area.
When 19% (Acil Allen found this to be the reduced value of the male sheep market in response to the ban) was applied to the gross value of sheep and lambs in the NEWROC region in 2020/21, there was a reduction of $3.725 million. When instead applied to the flock estimate, that increased to $4.4 million.
Based on a 20-year assessment with a 7% discount rate (adjusting for present value in line with WA and AU government economic evaluation guidelines) the impact is estimated at between $39.47 million and $46.57 million to the NEWROC economy alone.
Overall economic output and supply chain (simple multipliers) impacts on the NEWROC community are estimated to be $79.0 million to $128.8 from the cessation of live sheep exports.
When applying indirect economic multipliers relating to household consumption and expenditure impacts, these add a further $21.2 million to $34.6 million to the NEWROC impact.
“Estimates by Econisis using unit price/value and economic multiplier approaches indicate the potential impact on the regional NEWROC economy at between $39 million and $128 million in economic output over 20 years (at a 7%) discount rate”
“And this only represents the impact on the 7 regional local government areas in Western Australia. The scale of impact across the State’s wider sheep farming industry is likely to be much greater and will require significant investment and compensation by the Australian Government for the introduction of the market-limiting policy.”
Data and statistics in this article have come from “Live Sheep Trade By Sea Policy: Impact on the NEWROC Economy” by Econisis for NEWROC, released 21 November 2023.
Link: https://newroc.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Econisis-Report-NEWROC-Live-Sheep-Impact-FINAL.pdf
