Against Animal Cruelty Tasmania (AACT), the state’s pre-eminent animal advocacy organisation, has been refused a position on the state’s Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (AWAC) by Primary Industries Minister Bryan Green.
The group wrote to the Minister in February seeking representation.
AACT Co-ordinator Chris Simcox expressed the group’s surprise and disappointment at the decision.
‘”The composition of the AWAC is almost entirely in favour of representatives from organisations with a commercial, ‘recreational’ or other interests in the use of, and exploitation of, animals’”, said Mr Simcox. “‘There are just two representatives who could loosely be described as being from the animal advocacy movement, one from an organisation we believe to be compromised by its financial relationship with the State government, and one from Animals Australia, which is not a local group and cannot be expected to be apprised of issues within Tasmania.”’
The Animal Welfare Advisory Committee includes members from the intensive farming industries, the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association, hunting and shooting interests, the University and a veterinarian. The Minister also has the power to appoint ’such other persons as the Minister considers appropriate’ under the Animal Welfare Act.
AACT believes that the Minister has a conflict of interest in his oversight of the AWAC, since he is an acknowledged hunter and shooter.
The group says that it intends to exercise its rights of administrative review of the Minister’s decision.
