Nats leader sees McGowan as sheep ally

Federal National Party leader David Littleproud wants to join forces with Premier Mark McGowan to save Western Australia's live sheep export trade.

On his first trip west since replacing Barnaby Joyce, Mr Littleproud sees the premier as an ally given his opposition to federal Labor plans to phase out the $100 million trade within five years.

"We don't need east coast politicians imposing policies on WA that will cost 3,000 jobs, the livelihoods of 3,000 Western Australians," Mr Littleproud said. "I've got to say to the premier thank you for your maturity in this debate."

Mr McGowan said he was satisfied that changes to live export methods and welfare protocols had kept the industry viable, which put him at odds with both the Albanese government and members of his own caucus.

"The state government believes current measures, including the northern summer live export ban, are sufficient," a state government spokesman said. "Those measures were implemented after some shocking outcomes in the Persian Gulf over the northern summer. 

"We believe those measures - which also includes additional vet checks and monitoring - have worked well, and are effective and appropriate at this time."

Regional Development and Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan has already warned farmers that a ban on live sheep exports was inevitable.

The industry has been fighting for its future ever since secretly obtained video was released to the media in 2018, which revealed the horrific conditions aboard a live sheep export ship sailing from Fremantle to the Middle East.

Mr Littleproud and Mr McGowan believe the industry has cleaned up its act. 

"This is an opportunity for Mark McGowan to walk into the halls of Canberra to sit down with the prime minister and have an honest conversation," Mr Littleproud said.

"The world wants live animals, not just for cultural reasons, but for food security reasons. They don't have the refrigerated supply chains that we do. And if we don't do it, then we let the world down. So this is an opportunity and I'm not here to belt Mark McGowan. I'm here to work with him."

Asked how he might sit down with Mr McGowan when the premier believes the new coaltion leader Peter Dutton is "an extremist" and "not that smart", Mr Littleproud said it was important to move past the name calling.

In the lead-up the to the election, federal Labor said the industry had been in decline for about 20 years and the party's policy was to bring it to an end in consultation with the WA government.

Since becoming prime minister, Anthony Albanese said the policy had not changed, but his government would not begin phasing the industry out until it won a second term.

"No-one's envisaging a phase out in in this term of government," he said. 

"We'll sit down and we'll work these issues through cooperatively and respectfully. We haven't put a timeframe on that because we want to make sure that we consult with farmers and work it through in a cooperative way to make sure we get a win-win situation."

The post-election Coalition has its own differences of opinion on the live sheep trade with, new Liberal deputy Sussan Ley supporting Labor's plan to ban the industry.

"If we increase the processing capacity in Australia we actually don't need this trade at all," she told Sky News earlier this month.

Mr Littleproud said as part of the Coalition, the Nationals would demand a unified way forward on the the controversial issue and draw a line in the sand.