The Australian Alliance for Animals has welcomed the Albanese Government’s allocation of $5 million in last night’s federal budget for the development of a new national strategy for animal welfare.
The Australian Animal Welfare Strategy will re-establish a national framework for priority setting and associated national standards, and measures for the improvement of animal welfare outcomes.
Alliance for Animals’ Policy Director Dr Jed Goodfellow said the funding announcement was welcome news for the future of animal welfare in Australia.
“Australia has been without national leadership on animal welfare for over a decade after the former Abbott Government abolished the previous national strategy in 2013,
“Since then, progress on improving animal welfare standards has stagnated with Australia falling behind much of the developed world, receiving a ‘D’ ranking in the World Animal Protection Index,
“National leadership and coordination on animal welfare is so desperately needed in a federated country like Australia so this funding announcement is very welcome news,
“It signals to all stakeholders that animal welfare is firmly back on the national agenda,
“We hope it will lead to a more cooperative and progressive approach to animal welfare policy and standards development where science and community expectations are placed at the heart of the decision-making process.”
In addition to the strategy funding, the budget also contained $5.6 million for the independent assessment and consultation process on the phase out of live sheep exports.
The Alliance for Animals looks forward to working with the Government, industry and animal welfare stakeholders on the development of the Strategy.
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