Draft Animal Welfare Act Amendment Bill (Tasmania)
Submission overview
The Draft Animal Welfare Act Amendment Bill 2022 (‘Bill’) contains some positive improvements to the Animal Welfare Act 1993 (‘Act’), including banning pronged collars, providing an alternative verdict for aggravated cruelty and improving the powers of inspectors.
However, the Bill misses a number of important opportunities to bring Tasmania into line with the standards of modern and contemporary animal welfare law. Over the past decade, there have been significant advancements in our scientific understanding of the welfare of animals and their sentience, and community expectations about the treatment of animals has evolved accordingly.
Polling by Roy Morgan Research in March this year found that:
98% of Australians consider animal welfare to be important
94% support laws that ensure animals are provided with a good quality of life
97% support laws that ensure animals are protected from cruel treatment
80% support government doing more to protect animal welfare
74% support the creation of an independent body to oversee animal welfare
85% support animal welfare laws reflecting community expectations and best-available science.
We offer seven key recommendations for how the Bill can be improved to create a more robust animal welfare framework, with stronger governance and institutional arrangements, consistent decision-making principles, and a formal role for independent expert advice.
The recommendations include recognising animals as sentient beings, establishing a Tasmanian Animal Welfare Authority, improving the membership composition of the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee, and strengthening the process for making animal welfare standards and guidelines to ensure they are based on contemporary science and consistent with the duties enshrined within the Act.
We also provide brief comments on each of the proposed amendments under the Bill.
Although it is encouraging to see the Tasmanian Government initiating animal welfare law reform, this review process presents a unique opportunity to set the bar higher to meet the animal welfare standards Tasmanians expect.
Read our submission
In this submission, the Alliance for Animals puts forward seven key recommendations to improve Tasmania’s animal welfare framework.