Animal Justice Party promises veterinary care relief for low-income earners

Vet care can be expensive. So one party is pledging subsidised vet care for low-income earners ahead of the state election. What do you think?

Veterinarians are calling for subsidised pet care for low-income earners to ensure animals receive the treatment they need and reduce the stress vets face when clients can’t afford to pay.

Adelaide vets and the Australian Veterinary Association are backing the Animal Justice Party’s state election policy, under which affordable clinics offering at-cost services would be created.

The party’s lead candidate for the Legislative Council, Louise Pfeiffer, said thousands of South Australians faced vet bills they could not afford – a predicament that could lead to devastating consequences for their pets.

“This can also mean pets don’t receive the care they need or face death for an injury that is easily treatable,” she said.

Veterinarian Dr Alejandra Arbe Montoya supported the policy, saying there was also a heavy stress placed on vets when they had to euthanise animals for financial reasons.

“Having a vet where clients that cannot afford vet care can be referred to would alleviate that emotional toll,” Dr Arbe Montoya said.

Tea Tree Gully Veterinary Hospital’s Mark Reeve said he too was “very supportive” of the policy.

“We are one of the only states that don’t have charity or not-for-profit vet hospitals,” he said.

“So SA is certainly lacking.”

Animal Justice Party lead Legislative Council candidate Louise Pfeiffer, with her rescue Dalmatian Cassie. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

It comes after revelations last year that suicide rates among veterinarians are four times higher than in the general population.

A News Corp investigation found serious abuse from clients, often when they couldn’t pay for treatment their pets needed, was among the reasons they were being pushed to the brink.

There is no Medicare-type system for treating animals and pet insurance is expensive and offers only patchy cover.

The Australian Veterinary Association said it wanted governments to develop a system that allowed care to be delivered to all animals regardless of their owners’ socio-economic status.

“Financial limitations preventing veterinary teams from providing the most appropriate care and best outcomes for animals causes such ethical challenge in the veterinary profession that it is negatively affecting health and wellbeing and vets are leaving the profession,” it said in a statement.

“The AVA welcome initiatives that will allow economic costs to be shared across community to cover the shortfalls where there is no funding.”

To help pay for its policy, the Animal Justice Party says a tax on puppy breeders should be considered. It is also calling for greater scrutiny of puppy mills.

‘Put dope to a vote’: One Nation’s big SA election call

A high-profile advocate has thrown her weight behind a political push for a plebiscite on legalising recreational cannabis use in South Australia.

Jenny Hallam was spared a conviction in 2019 for producing cannabis oil to help herself and others deal with chronic pain, with the court that released her on a good behaviour bond acknowledging medicinal cannabis could be unaffordable and obtaining access “a long and difficult process”.

Now Ms Hallam says “it’s time” for the state to follow other jurisdictions around the world, backing a One Nation policy to push for a plebiscite should it win any seats at the March state election.

“I support anything that will mean that cannabis is legalised completely and utterly in this state,” she said.

“The sky hasn’t fallen down in other places that it has been legalised.”

One Nation SA leader Jennifer Game said numerous overseas jurisdictions had legalised recreational cannabis after a referendum or plebiscite and “positive impacts are now really being felt in some of these places”.

Jenny Hallam outside court in Adelaide in 2019. Photo: AAP Image/David Mariuz.

“California, for example, now collects more than $1bn in revenue from recreational marijuana,” she said.

“It can create a whole new industry and a lot of new jobs and businesses.”

Ms Game said it would also improve access for people who used it therapeutically and products would be better regulated for safety.

She acknowledged there were legitimate concerns about the long-term health effects of regular use of cannabis and about the impact on water resources required to produce crops.

“These are just some of the elements that will need to be addressed in an honest public debate in the lead-up to a plebiscite,” she said.

It comes after the Greens put forward a plan in November to make SA the state of “fine wine, food and weed” by legalising recreational use, including the cultivation of up to six cannabis plants at home.

Greens MLC Tammy Franks says, rather than an expensive plebiscite, politicians could just ‘do their jobs’ and create a safer, legal market for cannabis in SA. Picture Dean Martin

The party said it would generate tax revenue for the state’s health system, up-end organised crime operations and improve access to marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Greens MLC Tammy Franks said she was not opposed to plebiscites but “I am opposed to expensive and unnecessary ones”.

“I am concerned at the massive cost of one now, when politicians could just do their jobs and get on with creating a safer, legal market that will break the current criminal business model and bring in both compassion and revenue if we just legalise it,” she said.

“Poll after poll shows that already the public are waiting for politicians to catch up on this issue.”

Ms Franks said One Nation should “cut to the chase” and support the Greens’ bill instead.

The last plebiscite held in SA was a referendum on election boundary changes in 1991, costing $2.8m.