Senator Mehreen Faruqi, the Greens’ Spokesperson for Animal Welfare, has welcomed the Government’s decision to adopt Greens’ amendments to the Inspector-General of Live Animal Exports bill 2019. The amendments insert a much needed focus on animal welfare into the bill, which had previously been completely missing.
The amendments change the objects of the Act to introduce a requirement to consider animal welfare and amend clause 10 of the bill to specifically provide that the Inspector-General must consider the welfare of animals as part of their reviews.
Senator Faruqi said:
“My amendments, which the Government has adopted, are a win for animal welfare. Under this Government, any improvement to animal welfare is a hard-fought step forward.
“Before the Government got on board with my changes, the bill didn’t have a single reference to animal welfare. The Greens’ amendments insert a much needed focus on animal welfare and ensure that it is considered in all reviews.
“Requiring the Inspector-General to consider animal welfare is an important win, but we know that live export is fundamentally incompatible with animal welfare. The only way to protect animals is to ban live exports.
“I will always be a voice for animals in Parliament,” she concluded.
