Wednesday, 8 June 2022

Bills

Meat Industry Amendment (Rabbit Farms) Bill 2021

Statement of compatibility

Mr MEDDICK (Western Victoria) (09:59): I lay on the table the following statement of compatibility with the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006:

In accordance with Section 28 of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (the Charter) I, Andy Meddick Member for Western Victoria (Animal Justice Party), make this statement of compatibility with respect to the Meat Industry Amendment (Rabbit Farms) Bill 2020.

In my opinion, the Meat Industry Amendment (Rabbit Farms) Bill 2020 as introduced to the Legislative Council is compatible with human rights as set out in the Charter. I base my opinion on the reasons outlined in this statement.

Overview of the Bill

The main purpose of the Meat Industry Amendment (Rabbit Farms) Bill 2020 is to amend the Meat Industry Act to remove rabbits - who are not living in the wild - as being consumable animals. This Bill permits current rabbit farms to continue until the end of their license but does not permit further licenses for rabbit farming in the future.

Human Rights

The Meat Industry Amendment (Rabbit Farms) Bill 2020 is compatible with the Charter as it does not interfere with any of the human rights set out in the charter. The Bill further supports the Universal Declaration of Animal Rights, that was solemnly proclaimed in Paris on 15 October 1978 at the UNESCO Headquarters, submitted to the UNESCO Director General in 1990 and made public.

Andy Meddick MLC

Member for Western Victoria

Second reading

Mr MEDDICK (Western Victoria) (10:00): I move:

That the bill be now read a second time.

I’m here to tell you a story. And I hope, with the help of my colleagues in this house, that we can write a happy ending together.

Once upon a time there was a rabbit. This rabbit’s name was Buck, and he was apparently held in some affection by Shane Moodie. Moodie was a rabbit farmer who confined Buck at his enterprise, known as Southern Farmed Rabbits. There were whispers of cruelty at that farm and breaches to codes of practice. However, the animal welfare laws made it difficult—if not impossible—to charge anyone who was cruel to animals, let alone prosecute them. So it was up to the work of some citizens to find out what was going on and to see if the allegations of animal cruelty at this place were true.

As soon as the investigators entered the sheds, their eyes started burning. The ammonia levels were well over the legal limit. Imagine what this was like for the rabbits who were living in wire cages in this ammonia soup. It was difficult to witness, but the investigators overcame their distress to document the conditions at Southern Farmed Rabbits.

A short time later, an anonymous package arrived at my office. With some trepidation my staff and I watched the footage and looked at the photos. It was not easy. The rabbits were diseased, restless, sore, lame, and in some cases unable to move at all. They had the same amount of space as this piece of paper in which to spend their short and miserable lives. These rabbits were chewing endlessly on the metal bars of the cages. This repetitive behaviour is typical of many animal species—including our own—in response to severe and prolonged distress.

Some rabbits were struggling to breathe. Imagine that you’re in respiratory distress. You can’t fill your lungs. You simply can’t breathe. Imagine. If it happens to us, we call an ambulance. If it happens to our dog or cat, we take them to the vet. If it happens to animals who are farmed for food, everyone looks the other way.

Along with respiratory distress the rabbits had physical injuries. We saw rabbits with broken bones, exposed bones, trapped limbs, bleeding sores and abscesses. They suffered foot infections, eye infections, and head tilt.

If some of my colleagues don’t know what head tilt is, it is a serious neurological disorder where a rabbit’s head becomes tilted to face upside down. Imagine—your chin is pointed up to the sky. You cannot right yourself. You feel that you are falling. You cannot stand straight, try as you may. And there is nothing you can do about it. No-one cares.

All of this drew the attention of one of Victoria’s most senior vets, who is Australia’s foremost expert in rabbits. We sat together watching rabbits move among piles of blood, urine, and faeces. Live rabbits were thrown on top of dead rabbits. Again, imagine for a moment if this was happening to you or someone you loved.

On 8 September 2021, the story broke in the Age. There was a public outcry. Less than 48 hours after the initial story broke, a ‘government spokesperson’ said, and I quote, ‘the investigation was finalised, living conditions met code of practice requirements and health issues were being treated. No further action would be taken’.

My phone started ringing hot. People had read the paper and seen the news. No-one could believe such a finding. The spokesperson may deny any wrongdoing, but I won’t.

We all know that our Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1986 (POCTA) does not apply to animals bred and killed for food. But rabbits are not defined in the act as ‘farm animals’. So, unlike other farmed animals, rabbits should benefit from the protections of POCTA, just like our cats and dogs do. But, like so many animals, they aren’t protected by anti-cruelty laws.

Breaches to POCTA’s sections on cruelty and aggravated cruelty include rabbits living in diseased and injured conditions, and rabbits with their arms and legs trapped in cages, unable to free themselves.

This is happening today. This is happening right now.

Breaches of the Code of Practice for the Intensive Husbandry of Rabbits include extreme levels of ammonia causing respiratory disease and distress. Cages are rusted and some rabbits are unable to move. Rabbits have foot injuries from the hard wire mesh flooring, broken limbs, and protruding bones. They have cuts on their ears, abscesses on their heads, faces, eyes and necks. Many of them have mastitis, pus, and dried blood on them. Some of the rabbits’ eyes are glued shut with pus. They have overgrown teeth so are unable to feed themselves properly, overgrown toenails so they are unable to walk. Diarrhoea and emaciation show they are suffering gastrointestinal diseases. Some have pus occluding their air passages, so they are struggling to breathe.

Breaches of section 32 of the Meat Industry Act 1993 include diseased animal flesh being sold for human consumption. The flesh of many of these rabbits is infected with pus, blood and excreta. The vet observed mastitis, pneumonia and pasteurellosis.

What humans do to non-humans does not happen in a silo. Not only are rabbits suffering at Southern Farmed Rabbits, as we speak, but so are humans. It is well established that humans who work in the animal exploitation system suffer from perpetrator-induced traumatic stress. So as well as disease and suffering going into the stomachs of our fellow Victorians, the stress experienced by humans who work there contributes to the levels of violence in our society. Everyone suffers.

This is one of the reasons that the government is rewriting our animal welfare laws. It’s about time, since our international ranking is embarrassing, which I have noted before in this house. Australia scores a D in the world animal protection index and a dismal E for animals in agriculture. An E! The new voiceless animal cruelty index ranks Australia a G. The worst I got in high school was an F. I didn’t know you could even get a G! That’s because G is reserved for the worst in the world. It may be hard to believe, but believe it. Our government accountability for animal welfare is almost non-existent.

Countries that have good animal welfare laws offer five basic freedoms to non-human animals, internationally recognised:

1. freedom from hunger and thirst

2. freedom from discomfort

3. freedom from pain, injury and disease

4. freedom to express normal behaviours

5. freedom from fear and distress.

The rabbits at Mr Moodie’s establishment did not receive any of these freedoms. These freedoms should be afforded to all animals, human or otherwise.

A recent study determined that Australian animal welfare laws are perplexing, ineffective, and fragmented. The result is—predictably—poor animal welfare. I hope the rewriting of our Victorian laws brings meaningful change in the lives of the animals. Removing rabbits as consumable animals would be a good-faith way for the government to demonstrate their genuine wish to reform animal welfare in Victoria.

Rabbit farms are untenable, unworkable and unprofitable. Rabbits, like so many introduced animals, should never have been brought here. The government of that time realised they’d made a mistake in bringing them here. So they shot the rabbits, blew them up and chased them with ferrets. That didn’t work so they tried poisoning them with 1080, pindone and SAP. That failed, as did the rabbit-proof fence, as did introduced infections like rabbit scab, chicken cholera and the myxoma virus. All the government interventions have failed, caused more suffering and solved nothing.

Regardless of these failures, our colleague from The Nationals, which we know is the most anti-animal party in this house, had the bright idea in 1997 to start breeding rabbits. Imagine—against that backdrop I’ve just described.

Does it make sense to support a failing and fraught industry that breeds the very animal that generations of governments have been trying to get rid of—with guns, poison, traps, disease and dynamite for more than 100 years? It doesn’t make sense to me. And the opposition are not generally known for their logic in such matters, but the government can surely see the nonsense in this.

There is one piece of good news. The rabbit meat industry is a dying industry. In 2001 there were 52 rabbit farms in Victoria. AgriFutures Australia estimates there are now only four to six in the entire country.

A recent Parliamentary Budget Office report states there may be three or four rabbit farms in Victoria and estimates its market value as between $540 000 and $800 000. Our stakeholders say there are actually only two. The PBO reports, and I quote, an ‘uncertain growth trajectory, with flat-to-declining domestic demand and extremely limited export markets’. The two insurmountable problems are poor welfare and the spread of disease. There is no antidote to either RHD virus or myxomatosis. Do we really want these diseases spreading through our farms?

I hope this government will act sensibly and bring an end to this unprofitable, cruel and niche industry. Please, colleagues, do not turn away and assure our place at the bottom of the animal welfare barrel. You have the power to give these rabbits some relief. I just hope that you also have the will.

This bill removes rabbits as consumable animals, thereby removing the problems that come with farming them. This does not affect rabbits living in a wild state. For the sake of the good farmers out there, for the sake of the rabbits and for the sake of writing a happy end to this story, help me ‘humanely slaughter’ this dying industry as I commend this bill to the house.

Ms TAYLOR (Southern Metropolitan) (10:13): I move:

That debate on this bill be adjourned for two weeks.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned for two weeks.