Transcript of media conference with Vica Bayley, Greens MHA for Clark, and Kristy Alger, spokesperson for Animal Liberation Tasmania, Parliament Lawns, Hobart, 16 March 2024.
Vica Bayley
Tasmanians were shocked last year when animal rights activists expose systemic cruelty in five slaughterhouses across Tasmania. The government acted but not by immediately strengthening laws in line with what community expects and what we know needs to be done. They announced a task-force and promised that it would report back to Parliament on the fifth of March.
Obviously the fifth of March has passed. We’re now a week out from the election, and Tasmanians deserve to know what the government is going to recommend in terms of its reforms to animal cruelty laws, and how it manages slaughterhouses in Tasmania. It’s not good enough for us to be treating animals in this way. It’s not good for our primary industries. And it’s certainly not good for our reputation.
Tasmanians deserve to know exactly what the Rockliff government is planning on doing in responding to these animal cruelty revelations. They need to act and they need to come clean with the Tasmanian people about exactly what they propose to do.
We’re also today announcing our plans to strengthen animal cruelty legislation and ensure that animals’ welfare is protected as best as possible in slaughterhouses and other institutions. We’re announcing reforms to strengthen our animal protection laws to improve definitions and make them in line with community expectations and science to increase penalties for misdemeanours for recognising sentience of animals and we want to see these laws strengthened as soon as possible.
It’s incumbent upon the Premier to announce, as was promised to the Tasmanian people, what exactly they propose to do in terms of strengthening animal protection laws. We’d also like to see our animal welfare institutions properly funded so that they can undertake the activities they do. So organisations like the Dogs Home and Brightside, we’ve got $1.5 million per year in the budget to support the amazing work that they do.
Journalist – unidentified
Brightside yesterday posted footage of some horses that they rescued from a paddock somewhere in southern Tasmania, one of the horses had to be put down, emancipated, looks like it hadn’t been cared for. Have you seen this vision? What was your reaction?
Vica Bayley
I haven’t seen this vision. But it doesn’t surprise me. It constantly appears to take activists and advocates to do the work of government, to do the work of government agencies and actually expose this systemic cruelty, put it in the media and force a response from government.
Now we know this is happening across the state in various different institutions, whether it be within the racing industry, whether it be within our slaughterhouses, and that’s why our animal protection legislation needs to be strengthened. We need stronger penalties. We need stronger protections for animals, we need to recognise that they are sentient beings, and we need to make sure that our laws protect them. This is in line with what animal rights organisations are demanding, such as the RSPCA.
The minister’s task-force was going to be reporting back to the minister in March and she was going to be reporting to Parliament on the fifth of March. That’s well past now and we don’t have Parliament because we’re in an election. It’s a week before Tasmanians go to the polls. They deserve to know exactly what the Liberal government is planning on doing in relation to this issue, because our expectations haven’t been met in terms of protecting these animals, managing their welfare. In these circumstances.
Tasmanian Times
If you look at, for example, the treatment of seals in aquaculture, of dogs and horses in racing, it seems that even when there are regulatory bodies, and even when issues are reported to them, not much changes. Do we have a sort of cultural problem with oversight in Tasmania?
Vica Bayley
We absolutely have a cultural problem and that’s why we need to strengthen Tasmania’s animal protection laws. We have seen systemic failures across multiple industries revealed by activists and advocates. The system is failing, it’s failing animals and that’s failing Tasmanians and our businesses and our expectations of how we treat the animals in our care. It’s clear that our animal protection legislation needs to be strengthened.
The government promised to report back to Parliament and the Tasmanian people about how it would do that in early March. We’re about to go to the polls and as we go to the election people should have the right to know exactly what government is proposing to do. We Greens propose to strengthen animal protection legislation and invest more money in those organisations like Brightside and the Dogs Home who are looking after animals on our behalf. We want to know what the liberal politicians want to do.
Tasmanian Times
In Switzerland there is an animal advocate who is appointed by the government. They act independently to advocate for animals across all sectors. Is that something that might come under the ambit of your animal welfare legislation?
Vica Bayley
We’ve moved to strengthen Tasmania’s animal protection laws in the parliament in the past, and it’s been voted down by Labor and Liberal politicians. There are a range of different options. And I’m sure the government’s own task-force is looking at that. That’s exactly our point. The task-force was looking at what are the options that are needed to strengthen the integrity of our animal protection laws.
It was going to report back to the minister and then the parliament in early March. We’re now towards the middle of March. And we’re about to go to election and Tasmanians deserve to know exactly what the minister and the Liberal government is proposing in this space. We need to know whether they are going to step up to the plate and meet community expectations around protecting animals and their welfare.
Journalist – unidentified
Do you think after the election, the two major parties will kind of sweep this issue under the rug?
Vica Bayley
This is an issue that has been consistently ignored and kicked down the road. Last year when animal activist exposed the systemic cruelty in our slaughterhouses, government could have taken action right then and there because we know what needs to be done. Instead, they announced the task-force and declared that it would report back by March.
Yes there’s a real risk that if the government and the Labor Party aren’t really clear about their policies and their proposals around animal welfare, that post election, we may not get any action. That’s why we want to see a new government in Tasmania with the Greens in the balance of power. We’re putting on the table today our commitment to strengthen animal protection legislation and with the Greens in the balance of power in the new Tasmanian parliament we’ll push to have these reforms implemented and implemented as soon as possible so that animals in Tasmania are genuinely protected.
The expectations of the community are met only with the greens in the balance of power, we have the capacity to push whatever major party is trying to form government to take action to deliver these kinds of reforms and protect animals on our behalf.
Kristy Alger
I’d like to start by saying Tasmania is in the midst of an animal welfare crisis, let alone animal rights. What we have seen in the last 10 years under Liberal government is animal cruelty across a wide sector of industries exposed time and again by members of the community and by activists, and it is always ignored. Back in 2016-17 when we were involved in disseminating footage from Tasmanian Quality meats that showed systemic issues with the slaughter of calves and sheep. There was all this talk about change, investigations. We were told that the slaughterhouse had fired people, that they’d put new policies in place, and then it happened again.
The Tasmanian community has an expectation when it comes when it comes to the treatment of animals, and it’s not being met. So long as we have this two party system where Labor and Liberal are the only alternatives that are put on the table for us, we’re never going to see any change. People need to understand they have alternatives. There’s the Greens, the AJP, independent candidates who do care, and will act.
Journalist – unidentified
Did the onus often feel like it’s on animal rights groups and activists to kind of uncover, you know, animal cruelty and that kind of thing?
Kristy Alger
There really is this onus on members of the community and activists to do the work of the government, to do the work of the the advisory committees and the authorities that are supposed to be overseeing these things, departments, the bureaucrats. We’re the ones out there actually showing the community what’s happening. We risk a lot in the process of doing that. Whether it’s actually obtaining the footage or disseminating the footage that’s provided to us, we put literally our lives on the line to do what the government refuses to do.
Tasmanian Times
We’ve seen in other parts of the world where activists have obtained secret footage that sometimes the political response has been to try to bring in very strong penalties for activists for doing that kind of thing. Do you feel there’s s a possibility that that might happen in Tasmania?
Kristy Alger
We’ve already seen with the anti protest laws, activist protest is severely curtailed with assorted charges for trespass, the raising of penalties and fines against activists. On the mainland of course there are multiple ag-gag laws, which have been designed under the guise of things like biosecurity and trespass laws that are actually designed to stop people obtaining footage and disseminating it to the public.
In New South Wales, it is illegal to publish footage obtained through these methods without having immediately contacted the authorities who then shut it down. I do not doubt the Liberal or a Labor government when they get in, whichever one it is, they will put ag-gag laws in.
Journalist – unidentified
Why do you think they don’t want to fix it, I guess dance around all these other issues?
Kristy Alger
Governments don’t want to act on animal welfare, let alone animal rights, because industry is all powerful. It’s all about the money. We’ve seen it with greyhound racing, harness racing. We’ll see it again with the thoroughbreds no doubt. We’ve seen it in the salmon farming industry. We see it in the forests. We see it in the slaughterhouses. Wherever an animal is a commodity, they will always come last when it comes to government involvement.
Tasmanian Times
Rebecca White said that she’s got a back-channel to the AFL and they are open to negotiation. What do you make of that?
Vica Bayley
I think Tasmanians deserve to be really clear on what Labor’s position in relation to the stadium is. When Labor had the opportunity to vote against the stadium it declined to do so, it squibbed on that opportunity. I don’t think it’s good enough for Labor to be claiming to oppose the stadium but do it via a renegotiation with the AFL. Labour missed the opportunity to oppose the stadium as they have told Tasmanians that they would when it was voted on in Parliament late last year. Only the Greens and independents in the parliament voted against the stadium going into the POSS process.
The Greens do not support the Macquarie Point stadium. We do not support Premier Rockliff spending over a billion dollars of Tasmanian taxpayer money on a stadium that we neither need and Tasmanians don’t want. We want to see York Park as the home of footy. We strongly support a Tasmanian AFL and AFLW team but we have stadiums where footy is played. We’ve got the one of the best playing surfaces in the country in the north of the state and York Park should be the home of footy.
