‘Keep it classy before we get nasty’: Keep the Sheep campaigner Tiffany Davey’s important message to farmers

“Are we being too nice?” This was among the questions put to pro-live export campaigner Tiffany Davey during an insightful Q+A at the Rylington Park Keep The Sheep Field Day last Thursday. Her response highlighted the delicate balancing act at play as Keep The Sheep organisers plan their next move, after what Ms Davey called a “hugely successful” rally in Canberra two days earlier. “There’s different layers to it,” she said. “What we don’t want to come across as, and we’ve said it from the beginning, is these feral country hicks. “But we’ve got a little while before the election and it is going to get dirty . . . We will get nastier.” A self-described animal lover, Ms Davey grew up on a Wongan Hills farm and has worked as a stockwoman on livestock carriers since 2019. She has as much to lose from the Albanese Government’s sheep shipping ban as anyone else. Nevertheless, one of the key messages from her speech was the importance of keeping the dialogue respectful. “The most important thing is having respectful conversations — whether that’s with your friends, your family, the taxi driver, in your local cafe, and online,” Ms Davey said. “We see it quite often in replies (to social media posts): Someone will be like ‘you bloody idiot, how could you not know that?’ “But what’s going to be more effective in a conversation — shutting it down because they’re a ‘bloody idiot’ for what they don’t know, or being like ‘what do you want to know? Do you have any questions?’.” Ms Davey also stressed the importance of educating city dwellers about the “shared values” at stake if the ban goes ahead in 2028. “It’s like, ‘you care about welfare? So do I. You have a family to feed? So do they’,” she said. After applauding campaigners for their efforts, one attendee questioned why a more “drastic” approach was not being taken. “Why don’t we shut down the airport?” he asked. “In the city, that’s where they need to know how much this is going to hurt us.” Ms Davey responded with a question of her own. “If we shut down that whole city and they weren’t able to get ambulances to the hospitals, how would we have been perceived?” she said. “We’re running multi-million-dollar businesses and we have so much to consider. We’re not these people with pitchforks and we don’t ever want to come across as that. “It’s about balancing and projecting that frustration but at the same time controlling the narrative.” The number of signatures on Keep The Sheep’s petition to overturn the ban had rocketed from about 87,000 ahead of the Canberra rally to more than 100,000 just two days later. Ms Davey told Countryman it was a sure sign the campaign — which saw about 2000 people descend on the nation’s capital last week — was shifting the dial. “The working committee is already ticking along as to what needs to be done next; we’re not going to stop, that’s for sure,” she said. “Everyone should expect to see more from Keep The Sheep, but also, don’t hesitate to do something within your local community — in whatever capacity — whether it’s a small event, or writing to your local newspaper editor. “We want everyone to continue this momentum and groundswell at a grassroots level.” Also speaking at the field day was Australian cricketing legend and Lifeline ambassador Brad Hogg. Hogg — who was raised on a Williams sheep farm — reminded everyone of the importance of maintaining the conversation. “When times are good, we’re always talking, but when times are bad, that’s when we’ve got to keep that chatter going — especially with Keep The Sheep,” he said. “If you can keep chatting about it, you will come up with answers . . . something will click somewhere along the line.”