The new federal Labor government must follow through on its pre-election promise of banning live export or risk losing the support of animal-loving voters, New South Wales Upper House MP for the Animal Justice Party Mark Pearson has warned.

Labor has confirmed they will ban the live export of sheep, but not cattle, and have no timeline for a total ban on the industry, a position Mr Pearson says “isn’t good enough”.

“Whether sheep or cattle, no animal deserves the unimaginable suffering that farmed animals go through on these death ships,” Mr Pearson said.

“Labor now has the opportunity to end this unnecessary cruelty for good, and the Animal Justice Party and the Australian public will hold them to account.”

Mr Pearson said the conditions all animals face on live export ships is “nothing short of tortuous”.

“Imagine being crammed with tens of thousands of others in filthy conditions, diseased and in pain, virtually cooking alive as temperatures soar above 45 degrees outside,” he said.

“The last federal government considered these conditions, and a single vet overseeing 50,000 suffering animals, as adequate care. Well, I don’t accept that – and neither does the average Australian on the street.”

In the early 2000s, Mr Pearson ran campaigns in Portland (VIC) and Fremantle (WA), working with other activists to stop empty live export ships from entering ports to collect animals for the Middle East.

In the same decade, he worked with wharf and meatworker unions to stop the proposed commencement of cattle live export through Newcastle (NSW).