Government goes slow: No action on animal welfare, wildlife, planning and gun laws

Farmers and activists have been waiting five years for the Andrews Government to deliver new animal welfare laws, including the recognition of animal sentience.

Victoria’s animal welfare laws will set new regulated standards of care, but farmers are still waiting to learn who will define them. Picture: Zoe Phillips

The Andrews government has hit the go-slow button on reforming Victoria’s animal welfare, Wildlife Act, biosecurity, rural planning and gun laws.

In the lead-up to the 2018 state election, the Andrews government promised inner urban electorates, where its candidates were battling the Greens, that if re-elected it would rewrite Victoria’s animal welfare laws to recognise animal sentience and define regulated standards of care.

Yet five years on and 478 community submission later, Labor has still not tabled new legislation.

Agriculture Minister Gayle Tierney’s office said the government would “continue throughout the rest of this year with further opportunities for Victorians to have their say”, with draft legislation to be released “later this year.”

Other reforms that have gone nowhere include:

THE May 2020 promise of then Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio to reform the Wildlife Act 1975, following the illegal destruction of wedge-tailed eagles in East Gippsland and koala deaths in a timber plantation at Cape Bridgewater. An expert panel consulted the community and delivered its report to the Minister in December 2021, which has not been released;

THE 2019 consultation on Planning for Melbourne’s Green Wedges and Agricultural Land Consultation Paper, which proposed removing farmers’ right to build a dwelling on 40ha or more, within 100 km of Melbourne, without a permit;

THE redrafting of the Wildlife (Game) Regulations, which are expected to introduce mandatory testing of hunters shooting skills, was deferred for 12 months last year; and

THE review of feedback on Victoria’s Biosecurity strategy in the wake of Indonesia’s 2022 foot and mouth disease outbreaks was meant to have been completed in January this year, but nothing has been released.