Further to our report (see below) of the appointment by the Federal Labor Caucus on 27 November 2012 of a Live Animal Export Working Group to develop a model for an Office of Animal Welfare, click here to read the House of Representatives Hansard for 11 February 2013 of the speech of Working Group member Melissa Parke MP on the Working Group’s proposed independent office of animal welfare.

At the conclusion of her speech, Ms Parke thanked Panel Secretariat members Jed Goodfellow and Jeni Hood (our WA State Co-ordinator)  “for their assistance with the proposed model”. Ms Parke said :

As a statutory authority outside the agriculture portfolio, the office will be dedicated to animal welfare policy, science and law, and will be independent of undue influence from competing political and commercial interests…For the first time, the Australian government would be able to provide an expert animal welfare opinion free of the conflicts of interest that characterise existing arrangements. The office would take the lead role in managing the development of national animal welfare policy, including the standards and guidelines, and facilitating harmonised legal outcomes by the states and territories. The office would not administer or enforce animal welfare legislation—currently, the responsibility of states and territories—due to the political, constitutional and budgetary difficulties this would involve. However, it would oversee the live export system since this is a specific responsibility of the Commonwealth.

The Panel has long advocated establishment of a Commonwealth statutory authority (akin though to say an ASIC or  ACCC) to regulate animal welfare in reliance in particular  on the corporations and trade and commerce powers under the Australian Constitution to all but “cover the field”, and free of agriculture department influence. The model canvassed in Ms Parke’s speech would not intrude upon State regulation, but it would for example take over animal welfare responsibility in respect of live exports as a mainly Commonwealth responsibilty. If the model is sanctioned by the Labor federal parliamentary caucus, it would  constitute a major step forward for animal welfare in Australia.