The Prime Minister recalled a meal he shared with Indonesian President-elect Prabowo Subianto hours before getting on stage at the prestigious event. “We had dinner, beautiful Australian beef – not the live export, we made sure it was dead,” he said towards the end of his scripted speech. The joke wasn’t well received by the farming community, as it grapples with the reality of a total ban on live exports by May 2028.
Earlier this year, Labor announced live sheep exports would be phased out over a four-year period. Mr Littleproud has since jumped on the comment, calling it “shameless”. “Why the Prime Minister would choose the AgriFutures awards – a night celebrating our agriculture industry – to mock our industries is beyond me,” Mr Littleproud said.
“It’s shameless the Prime Minister can mock the phase out of the live sheep export trade and in the next breath, declare how important agriculture is. “Labor is still unable to explain the science behind closing the industry because Labor’s phase-out decision is based on ideology.” Mr Albanese has now accused Mr Littleproud of trying to “make an issue out of nothing” while speaking at a press conference in Townsville on Friday morning.
“I support Aussie beef ...
and David Littleproud knows this full well,” he said. “I serve proudly Aussie beef to the Indonesia President-elect. We talked about, with the Indonesian President-elect, the importance of the live cattle industry as well as the fan.