This shocking animal abuse

Andrew Wilkie speaking on the Voice for Animals (Independent Office of Animal Welfare) Bill 2013* in the Parliament on 3 Jun 2013

Deputy Speaker I second the Bill and will take this opportunity to speak briefly to explain my support.

Deputy Speaker there’s an urgent need for someone or something to oversee animal welfare in Commonwealth regulated activities because sure as hell the current Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator Joe Ludwig, and regrettably his department, don’t seem to be up to the job.

How else to explain the repeated revelations of animal cruelty in Australia’s live animal export industry since the ABC Four Corners program blew the whistle two years ago on the shocking animal abuse in Indonesian slaughterhouses?

Revelations as widespread as at least in Egypt, Israel, Kuwait, Pakistan and Turkey, and probably in more places given the practical limitations on Animals Australia’s investigations and the likelihood of much more abuse going on undiscovered and unreported.

And revelations as diverse as the cutting of tendons to immobilise animals, the butchering of animals still alive because of haste and incompetence, the burying of animals alive because that’s one way of disposing of unwanted animals so long as you don’t give a toss about extreme cruelty, and the stabbing of eyes seemingly for fun.

Yes I know Deputy Speaker the Government reckons all’s well now that it’s implemented the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System. Trouble is all of the cruelty in recent times has occurred despite ESCAS being up and running, the implication being that the system doesn’t guarantee anything, or in fact do much other than to produce theatre for the Government to hide behind.

Bizarrely the more ESCAS is found to be an entirely inadequate animal welfare safeguard, the more the Government trumpets the system’s success on the basis that any breaches highlight the effectiveness of the oversight brought to bear by the system. Trouble is the breaches are not being picked up by ESCAS but in almost every case by the brave souls in Animals Australia.

So Deputy Speaker the current system does not work and there is genuinely an urgent need to put in place something that does.And to that end I feel that an Independent Office of Animal Welfare would be a good solution, not least because it would have an unambiguous mandate to ensure appropriate animal welfare standards are maintained. In other words the Office would not be conflicted like the Departmentand its Minister, who juggle what they see as the competing demands of industry profits and animal welfare, and invariably juggle them badly.

Deputy Speaker this matter does not reflect well on the Liberal and Labor parties, because the live animal export industry went largely unchecked during the 11 years of the Howard Government and next to nothing has been done to clean it up during the six years of the Rudd and Gillard governments.

Now in recent years there has been a concerted effort by some in the Labor Party to establish an Independent Office of Animal Welfare, which is obviously a good thing, but apparently it’s a move going nowhere fast and that reflects very poorly on the Labor Party more broadly.

Deputy Speaker I don’t understand why the Government and the alternative government are so weak on animal welfare. Surely there are enough men and women of good heart populating those parties to ensure animal welfare has a higher priority. But they are largely silenced in another demonstration of how the party system in this country quashes independent thought at the expense of the public interest and, in this case, animal welfare. It’s also another demonstration of the power of big business in this country and its ability to corrupt the development and implementation of good public policy.

Frankly I believe strongly that the live animal export trade must be stopped and am heartened to know that one day it will be, the only question being when. But so long as it does continue, at least this Bill would provide some protection for the animals.

Deputy Speaker I am proud to second this Bill, and congratulate the Greens for progressing it, and can only hope enough members in this place have the heart and backbone to support it. Those who don’t either don’t care much about animal welfare, or care more about their political self-interest.

Thank you Deputy Speaker.

* http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r5056

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