In March this year the Animal Justice Party (“AJP”) was registered as Australia’s newest and only political party for animals. Since then we have been steadily putting in place the building blocks necessary to enable the standing of candidates in the 2013 General Election and elections in other jurisdictions after that.  There are now 13 policies supporting animal well-being on the AJP web site with many more to come. There is a new section on the AJP website where members can update their contact details and view additional information about the AJP’s fight for animal justice.

In October the AJP was represented at the Living Green Festival in Canberra and the Cruelty Free Festival in Sydney.  New members eventuated from both.  You can now obtain AJP tee-shirts and carry bags by emailing the info line with your details.  Shortly we will be holding the official launch of the AJP and its policies via social media.  We will keep you posted on this.  With just a few more members the AJP will also be able to register in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory with registration in Victoria not far behind.

Graphic video footage of animal brutality, continuous lobbying and well-researched reports by those seeking greater animal welfare outcomes appear recently to have fallen on the deaf ears of the current Australian Government. The animal brutality and disregard continues. The only language major political parties understand is votes in marginal seats at the ballot box, and this is an area in which the AJP can make a difference to the lives of animals. Now more than ever there is a need for a political party for animals.

Bernie Brennan has had to step down from his role as Party Secretary due to ill health and has been replaced by current Treasurer Kerry Hewson.  We wish Bernie a speedy recovery from his injury so we can once again benefit from his commitment to animals.  I am certain Kerry will fill the important task of Party Secretary with all the energy it requires.

Early warning for your diaries; the AJP Annual General Meeting will be held in Sydney in mid-February.  Formal details will be sent to all members early in January.

Finally, we wish all our members a safe summer break and keep up the good work in helping our wonderful animals.

Professor Steve Garlick

President

The AJP will have a stall with t-shirts and bags so come along and have a fun day with live music and entertainment!

To stay in touch with the AJP don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @justice4animals and like our Facebook page.

“This decision continues the appalling record of both Labour and the Coalition on animal welfare in this country”, said AJP President Professor Steve Garlick. “The cold hearts of these politicians are completely impervious to the graphic and sickening evidence of widespread cruelty and abuse in this industry that we have now all witnessed”, he said.  Most members did not even bother to turn up for the vote and those from the Labor Party who would have supported the bills through a conscience vote were pulled into line by their party machine.

The Government and the opposition cited economics as their reason for opposing the two bills. The economics argument is completely without foundation. We know the live animal trade industry has taken thousands of jobs and millions of dollars of income away from the domestic chilled meat processing industry in Australia’s rural towns and put it in the private hands of a few large corporates.  A restructuring of the meat processing industry away from live exports would require little adjustment and nowhere near that ordinary workers endured when a range of industries where restructured in the 1980s and 1990s in the light of tariff reductions. These people were given labour market assistance to retrain and gain employment in other areas of the economy.  The same provisions could apply now if the present government had the boldness and foresight of previous Labor Governments.

“The Gillard Government’s decision to continue live cattle exports, despite the undisputed chilling evidence of sustained animal cruelty, now means not a single animal in this country, farm, companion or wild, will be supported by it where there is graphic evidence of animal mistreatment”, said Professor Garlick.  “Its time animals had a voice in the Parliament of this nation to ensure systemic violence towards them comes to an end”, he said.

Read the AJP policy on the live animal export trade and join the discussion on Twitter and Facebook.

In a decision of Faustian proportions, despite all the evidence of horrendous animal cruelty now available, the Gillard Labor Government has amazingly sided with the now totally discredited cattle export industry to resume the live cattle trade as of yesterday.

“Not once in all of the statements by the Gillard Government or the cattle industry on this issue has any real concern or emotion been expressed for the animals subjected to the violence of the live export trade.   How quickly their statements have turned to a one-sided view on economics, and to their bank accounts and lifestyles”, said Animal Justice Party President Professor Steve Garlick.

“That a Government can be so cold hearted, despite the graphic evidence of animal brutality, will be a real worry for animal-loving Australians. Animal-loving Australians now know they can expect no interest from its Government to any of the multitude of heartless animal cruelty circumstances that occur daily across this country”, said Professor Garlick.

The AJP supports both bills before the Parliament calling for a complete ban on the live trade and will be attending the protest rallies in various cities. Read the AJP policy on the live animal export trade and join the discussion on Twitter and Facebook.

According to the President of the Animal Justice Party, Professor Steve Garlick: “The ban must be reinstated and the industry and Government must be held to account for their failure to ensure animal welfare standards are being met in the live export trade.”

“Plain and simple, this is another knee-jerk decision by a Government that has just put in place terms of reference for a Senate Inquiry on the live animal trade and has clearly lost its way,” said Professor Garlick.

The news also comes as two private members’ bills from Independent Andrew Wilkie and the Greens Adam Bandt are yet to be debated by the House and according to Professor Garlick, “the Government’s decision to now lift the ban on live cattle trade to Indonesia before the bills have been debated makes a mockery of established democratic processes in this nation”.

“It demonstrates the Gillard Government is completely without emotion and sensitivity on an issue which many fair-minded Australians found abhorrent in the extreme when they saw the graphic images on the Four Corners television programme a month ago.”

“When it comes to animal welfare this Government has an icy cold heart – a demonstration of the coldness it has towards all animals and humans whose voice is not being heard in this country”.

“To say that the extreme brutality we all witnessed in the television footage can be swept away with a simplistic animal tracking and auditing system beggars belief when we know the depth and extent of what has gone on in an industry where cruelty is endemic from start to finish”.

“In ending the ban in this exceptionally cruel trade, Ms Gillard and Mr Ludwig have made a decision of Faustian magnitude. Live animal exports do not stack up economically or morally”.

AJP policy on the live animal exports can be seen at http://www.animaljusticeparty.org. For further information on the AJP please visit http://www.animaljusticeparty.org/ or email info@animaljusticeparty.org. You can also follow the AJP on Twitter http://twitter.com/justice4animals.

Media Enquiries

Tom Godfrey – Bell George PR – 0449 681 282 – tom@bellgeorge.com

Steve Garlick, President, Animal Justice Party of Australia

Lawns of Parliament House, Canberra

18 June, 2011

I begin with a question: “How can their [pointing to Parliament House] hearts be so cold when it comes to the welfare of animals?”

What did you feel when you saw the images of cows being slaughtered on the Four Corners programme?

• Did you cry?
• Were you outraged?
• Were you stressed?
• Were you ashamed to be Australian?

What do you think was going through the minds of these cows as they watched their mates before them go into the hell hole of those abattoirs where all those awful atrocities were performed? Could you possibly imagine their terror?

Now, what emotion have we seen from our politicians since that Four Corners footage? No doubt, they all would have seen it.

What emotion have we seen from Mr Ludwig, Ms Gillard, Mr Abbott and Mr Truss?

Did they express any empathy at all for the horrific acts of brutality acted out against these sentient beings? Were there any Bob Hawke tears? Bob Hawke when Prime Minister was able to at least show some emotion? I can’t recall seeing any from Ms Gillard – but they were very quick to start talking about how important the economics of this sordid trade were.  They saw it as just another Faustian business deal between a few wealthy farmers and the Indonesians.

What has been the response by politicians and livestock farmers?

• Mr Truss’ solution was to give the Indonesians a few more stun guns and all welfare problems would be over in a couple of days.
• Mr Ludwig has offered us another inquiry while suspending trade with only those abattoirs shown in the footage. Similarly from Ms Gillard, a temporary suspension of trade while more information is gathered. To stall for time until the heat of the Four Corners programme dissipates.
• The livestock farmers have extraordinarily said the problem can be solved quickly by having a new and better database and tagging system.

It is clear that our politicians and cattle farmers are the real automatons, not the animals which they treat as if they are.  If Ms Gillard et al have no emotion for the suffering animals we saw on the television several weeks ago I fear for their consideration of the plight of those humans who by dint of circumstance are in difficult situations – the disabled, the homeless, the poor and other vulnerable and powerless minority groups.

Not one response from these people suggested a complete ban.  You would think that in the 25 years since the last Senate Inquiry that identified issues of cruelty that needed to be addressed something meaningful would have been done. But if what we saw on the Four Corners programme is the result of 25 years of ‘improvement’ in animal welfare we have some pathologically scary people running this industry.

There is something terribly, terribly wrong with the way we treat animals in this country. Whether it is farm animals, native animals, introduced species or companion animals, they are seen by too many humans as objects either for making quick money or to provide some form of short-term human pleasure (because they taste good). Are they seen as subjects in their own right with reasonable capabilities for play, nurturing their young, allowed to live their lives out in peace?  It seems not.

What we saw on that Four Corners programme were just the final acts of horrific cruelty which actually begin at the Australian end in the feedlots, in the long-distance truck haulage of the animals and then the long sea voyage without adequate veterinary supervision. We need to be mindful that the question of cruelty to live exported animals, whether it be cattle, sheep or other animals does not only focus on the killing practices at their destinations. Much of the cruelty begins in this country and it just gets progressively more horrific. Every step along the way needs thorough scrutiny – not cheap and cosmetic tinkering around the edges.

The AJP policy on Live Animal Exports for Slaughter is that it be banned totally and banned immediately. It has failed the test of improvement required by the Senate 25 years ago.

This is also an industry that fails the economics test as well. When considering the counterfactual of locally-based meat production and chilled exports  the live trade is a net cost to the Australian economy, with a negative impact on many rural communities where meat processing was carried out.

During the Hawke-Keating years many industries faced restructuring when tariff levels were removed or significantly reduced. These included textiles, clothing and footwear; steel; and motor vehicles. Thousands of jobs were lost in all kinds of communities across the whole country.  With targeted labour market programmes many of the retrenched workers found other employment – and this was at a time when the unemployment rate was twice what it is today!  What makes a few wealthy cattle farmers so special to the current government  that they should not also be forced to restructure what they do to meet animal welfare conditions?

The AJP calls for a complete ban on the live animal export industry, as outlined in its policy which you can see on the AJP web site www.animaljusticeparty.org.We do not need yet another taxpayer-funded inquiry.  We have seen the industry’s response to the Senate Inquiry of 25 years ago. Its time is well and truly up. The whole industry is rotten for animal welfare.

I conclude with the question I began with: How can the hearts of our politicians be so stone cold when it comes to the welfare of animals? Surely those images on the television were vivid enough. Are they so besotted with money and themselves that they are totally blind to the needs of every other being with whom they share this planet?

Thank you.