This might give some clue: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhabihah

"The slaughter itself must be done by a sane (mentally competent) adult Muslim."

Halal abatoirs are the norm in most Sheep producing parts of Australia/NZ. This is far from unbridgeable.

The immediate reason for live exports now is there there's a premium on live sheep, often in the middle east.

Anyway, either the exporting or importing country can "ban" live shipping, so if origin and destination countries have different opinions that doesn't mean things can't change.

Obviously ban doesn't mean ban, just regulate to the point where transport-to-abatoir doesn't make sense. Obviously breeding stock and such will still travel.

I'm assuming because of the way an animal is sacrificed in order to be considered "halal". It would require a large slaughterhouse with the proper setup, which in an 98% orthodox country is not a easy arrangement.

About 25% of red meat exports from New Zealand are halal, and almost every slaughterhouse is capable of halal slaughter.

It's actually not particularly difficult to do halal slaughter, the two main requirements are that it is killed with a cut to the throat (common in non-halal slaughter) by a Muslim.

I'm not sure the muslim is a requirement per se, it's just that in practice there's an overseer. Many/most Muslim clerics accept kosher meat as halal, for example, even though the supervision is not necessarily Muslim.

Because of religious BS.