Voter views on animal welfare are changing - and taking the live sheep export trade with them | Gabrielle Chan

One of the great contrasts that has struck me on city visits is the rise of dog culture.

Massive pet warehouses with owners and their dogs waiting outside to buy dog clothes, fancy food, treats, leads, collars, beds, blankets and booties. That is before they are taken to the doggy dentist on the way to doggy daycare or down to the doggy park for a doggy dalliance or perhaps a posh puppuccino.

Half of all Australian households own dogs and Australia has one of the highest pet ownership rates in the world. There has been a generational shift in the way we think of some animals as companions. So as our pets transition from the back yard to our bedsides with their own wardrobe space, it stands to reason that animal welfare could become a political priority.

In the tumult and shouting of budget week, you may have missed the agriculture minister, Murray Watt, announcing the final date of Labor's long-held promise to phase out live export sheep by sea on 1 May 2028, a date recommended by an independent panel.

The bill to make this possible will be introduced before the end of this term. That means Australians will go to the polls at least once again before the ban comes into place. Labor has taken the policy to two elections. Live cattle exports by sea will continue, as will live sheep exports by air.

The UK's conservative government is preparing to give royal assent to its bill "to prohibit the export of certain livestock from Great Britain for slaughter". New Zealand banned all live exports of animals by sea last year though the new conservative National government is promising to overturn the ban.

Australia's decision will primarily hit a portion of Western Australian sheep producers because all of the live export trade in sheep by sea comes from that state. It will also hit feed millers supplying pellets to live sheep vessels, shearers who shear sheep before they go on ships, livestock transporters and live exporters.