Some 40 or 50 trucks descended on Canberra yesterday, joining farmers, politicians and industry leaders from all over Australia to participate in the National Ag Rally.
Truckies travelled across the Nullarbor and via South Australia to the ACT, ending up in a rolling convoy around Parliament House.
Led by ‘Keep the Sheep’ campaign spokesperson and transport operator Ben Sutherland, their main goal was to protest the ban on live sheep exports recently implemented by the Albanese government.
Paul Brown, a former member of parliament in Western Australia who has been in the agricultural industry for the past 35 years, was the main organiser of the rally.
Truckies formed a rolling convoy around Parliament House. Image: Keep the SheepHe told Big Rigs: “We didn’t get an exact head count but we think we had about 2,000 people at the rally in total.
“There were 40 or 50 trucks and other vehicles such as tractors, which came mostly from Western Australia but also from Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland.
“We were happy with the attendance given that it was for the National Ag Rally, not just Keep the Sheep, and it can be harder to get people passionate about a protest that doesn’t have a very specific focus.”
Despite the broadness of the rally, Brown was satisfied that the Keep the Sheep protestors made their point – that they’re not giving up easy.
“We have been very clear at Keep the Sheep that we had two parts to our campaign,” he said.
“The first part was to stop the ban, which we failed to do a couple of months ago.
“The second part of the campaign is to change the government, to allow a repeal of the act to take place.”
The Keep the Sheep campaign now has over 100,000 petition signatures. Image: Keep the SheepPrime Minister Anthony Albanese and Minister for Agriculture Julie Collins did not address the rally, with Albanese not responding to an invite to attend and Collins declining to speak, but inviting representatives to meet her inside Parliament House.
“We didn’t feel it was appropriate to go into Parliament House to meet her when she wouldn’t come out and speak to us alongside the other 2000 people who were there,” said Brown.
He added that there were many other politicians in attendance who have promised to stand with the Keep the Sheep campaign, including opposition leader Peter Dutton and Federal Nationals leader David Littleproud.
“Peter Dutton and David Littleproud came out with their entire joint party group and stood on the stage, and that was a very powerful image.
“Both leaders have committed to repealing the ban on live sheep exports – that was a very big commitment, done in such a powerful way that it can’t be ignored.”
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