Federal election: WA farming leaders ‘incensed’ by Anthony Albanese snub as PM embarks on marginal seat tour

Anthony Albanese didn’t meet with any farmers during his latest visit to WA, with incensed sheep producers accusing the Prime Minister of “grubby double standards” after he took the opportunity to spruik Australia’s lucrative beef trade. Mr Albanese embarked on a marginal seat marathon through Queensland, the Northern Territory and WA last week, landing in Kununurra on Wednesday night. WAFarmers president John Hassell said the group did not receive an invitation — nor did it make a request — to meet with the PM. “The thing is, they’re keeping it very secretive, so they make it very difficult to try to even put a request in,” he told Countryman. “At what point do you actually become accountable to the people? Obviously, that’s going to be at the ballot box, but what’s wrong with meeting people and actually having a discussion?” TURBOCHARGING THE REGIONS Mr Albanese launched the campaign-style visit — his 27th to WA as PM — with a $200 million pledge to turbocharge the State’s regions by boosting housing and community infrastructure. The package includes $90m for the delivery of water, power and road infrastructure to service 1367 new homes across Karratha, the Wheatbelt and Lockyer in the Great Southern. Another $100m would be spent on local infrastructure in the State’s north, including $1.9m for a Kununurra riverbank recreation project, $15m for a Newman youth centre and child care, and $13m for new pontoons and landscaping to boost fishing tourism in Wyndham. It supports Premier Roger Cook’s push for more people to move to regional WA, which Mr Albanese on Wednesday declared “a beautiful place to live, work and visit”. “My Government wants to ensure it has the housing and amenities it needs to continue to grow and thrive,” Mr Albanese said. Earlier that day, while in the NT, Mr Albanese visited Lake Nash cattle station where he spruiked the economic benefits of China’s decision last month to lift its final bans on Australian beef. From 2020, Beijing had put suspensions on a total of 10 beef processing plants resulting in a $20.6 billion reduction in exports. “As a direct result (of the suspensions being lifted), exports have gone back stronger to even where they were beforehand and now, over the coming 12 months in 2025, will exceed $2 billion,” Mr Albanese told reporters. “This provides a life blood for employment here in the Territory.” The move by China marked the removal of its final unofficial trade sanctions on Australian products including wine, barley, cotton and rock lobsters, after crippling tariffs on the latter were lifted in October. At the time, Mr Albanese called it a “major win”. But Pastoralists and Graziers Association of WA president Tony Seabrook pointed to the Federal Government’s looming live sheep export ban as an example of Labor’s hypocrisy. “We’re incensed. What a double standard. What an unbelievable, grubby, double standard,” he told Countryman this week. “The crayfish guys and the cattle guys get an absolute lift out of this, and the sheep guys, for no other reason than political expediency, are being slammed against a wall.” Mr Seabrook, a grain grower and sheep producer based at York, said PGA did not receive an invitation to meet the PM. “I think his advisers have said ‘stay as far away as you can from the farmers, they’re just going to give you grief’,” he said. “It would have been clearly said to him: ‘The live export issue is just simmering away there, and if you give them one ounce of oxygen, you’ll be confronted with the full force of it’.” KEEP THE SHEEP CRASHES THE PARTY Anger at Mr Albanese’s failure to meet with farmers came to a head on Friday, when several Keep the Sheep campaigners crashed a sod-turning ceremony to mark the start of construction of an $88m aquatic centre in Alkimos. Mr Hassell was among them, yelling “Do you have the courage to talk to us?” as Mr Albanese’s car passed the group on the final day of the PM’s WA visit. “I went there as the WAFarmers president . . . I called out to him . . . and he just drove off without even acknowledging us,” Mr Hassell said. “He’s espousing the virtues of the live cattle trade and the live bloody lobster industry and then wanting to slam dunk the live sheep, the hypocrisy just knows no bounds.” Keep the Sheep spokesman Ben Sutherland said the campaign’s petition to save the sheep-shipping trade, due to be shut down in mid-2028, had attracted more than 106,000 signatures. “The PM faces a choice: reverse this devastating ban or be prepared to see us and hear us every time he sets foot in WA between now and election day,” he said. Victory in nine WA seats swept Labor to power in Canberra in 2022, but the vast electorate of Durack that includes the Kimberley has remained in Liberal hands. The Federal election must be held by the end of May, with WA’s State election scheduled for March 8 barring a clash with the Federal poll. A ‘BAD’ TRACK RECORD Labor’s $200m regional housing and infrastructure pledge is expected to support 591 homes in the mining town of Karratha, where the population is expected to increase 35 per cent by 2030. The town’s median weekly rental of $1100 is almost double Perth prices, according to the Real Estate Institute of WA. But WA Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash dismissed the ambitious plan as lacking in substance. “Mr Albanese is very good at making promises, but he’s very bad at delivering them,” she said. “His promise to build 1.2 million homes nationwide is falling short by hundreds of thousands, yet he keeps promising it will be better next time.” The Government was also spruiking expanded port services at Ashburton, Wyndham and Dampier with “first port of entry” status expected to increase export capacity as much as five-fold. Mr Albanese also ruled out a minority government deal with the Greens or teals and promised no new mining tax would be introduced if Labor wins the Federal election, as he vies to secure crucial resources States. “What we’re doing is actually supporting the industry through production tax credits and we will prioritise that when Parliament goes back,” he told The West Australian on Thursday. “We have our position, we’ve done what we said we would do last time round. Resources companies do pay substantial tax and contribute to the national economy. “They also contribute by employing people and those people pay tax as well.” Senator Cash said the Prime Minister’s support for the resources industry came with too many “strings attached”. “If Mr Albanese really wants to help regional WA he should urgently approve the Woodside Karratha gas plant,” she said. “Unfortunately he’s too busy trying to get Greens’ preferences. Western Australians know that Mr Albanese’s promises always come with significant strings attached — his mining production tax credits will only be available to those who do deals with his union mates.” While in Perth on Thursday, Mr Albanese posed for photos with Hasluck MP Tania Lawrence and Bullwinkel candidate Trish Crook in Perth. However, attempts to ask Ms Crook a question were declined. Asked whether there was anything in the PM’s announcements for farmers, Mr Seabrook responded “very little”. “With the issues around the cost of regional education, health and our road systems, this is a Government that is confident that it can ignore the bush,” he said.