Animal welfare standards start nationally

Delays in implementing national welfare standards puts the animal ag sector at risk, argues Richard Mussell.

Cattle feed on a livestock carrier at East Arm Wharf in Darwin. Picture: Keri Megelus

In 2018, the federal Agriculture Department commissioned research into the community’s views on farm animal welfare.

The report – Australia’s Shifting Mindset on Farm Animal Welfare – found 95 per cent of Australians view farm animal welfare to be a concern and 91 per cent wished to see some reform.

It also found that due to changing societal expectations, the perspectives of animal activists will become increasingly persuasive with middle Australia leading to sharp declines in trust and confidence in the sector.

By all accounts, this should have been a wake-up call for the Australian Government to start investing more in leading national policy on farm animal welfare.

Instead, we are still stuck with the same clunky, dysfunctional approach we inherited after the Government decided to dismantle and defund the Australian Animal Welfare Strategy in 2013.

Progress on reviewing and developing our national standards for livestock welfare has ground to an effective halt. Standards for Sheep and Cattle, developed over several years by key industry and animal welfare stakeholders were finalised in 2016.

They have since been implemented in only one state as regulated standards (South Australia), and in one other merely as voluntary guidelines (NSW).

The review of national standards for Australia’s poultry industries began in 2015 and after a record-breaking 167,000 submissions, the public are still none the wiser about what decisions have been made about phasing out controversial practices like the use of conventional battery cages for egg-laying hens.

State, territory and federal governments must agree to a more co-operative and properly resourced approach to developing and implementing national standards.

Who really has most to lose when the next animal welfare crisis hits?

Not government, but the affected industry that finds itself at the centre of a crisis it had limited power to avoid without the assistance of government in setting minimum regulatory standards and weeding out bad apples.

It is not a matter of “if”, but “when”.

The sooner governments give animal welfare the priority the community expects, the more certain the industry’s future will be.

● Richard Mussell is RSPCA Australia chief executive

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