Month: August 2019

Australian Greens Senator and Spokesperson for Animal Welfare, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has condemned the Government passing the Criminal Code Amendment (Agricultural Protection) Bill 2019 through the House of Representatives. The Bill is likely to be considered by the Senate at the next sitting in September.
Senator Faruqi said:
“The Greens will not be party to the passing of laws that will silence protest and jail animal welfare investigators and activists. Trespass and incitement are already offences, it’s clear these new extreme laws are just about targeting those who expose animal cruelty’
“This is a dressed up anti-protest and ag gag bill that takes us further down the road to a police state. This is just the latest bill in a long line of legislation designed to protect big agribusiness from scrutiny and transparency. It is designed to stop the public from using their democratic right to protest.
“People do not have faith in the animal welfare compliance mechanisms in this country. Unenforceable guidelines for the protection of farm animals are completely inadequate. We should be debating national animal cruelty laws with real accountability and enforcement to protect farm animals.
“Australia really is in the dark ages when it comes to animal welfare. New Zealand has already banned mulesing and the European Union has banned battery cages. Sow stalls are banned in the United Kingdom. While many, particularly small farms in Australia don’t use these cruel practices, many still do, especially industrial factory farms.
“Rather than improving animal welfare laws and practices, this Government is obsessed with attacking those that expose horrific mistreatment of animals. They are on the wrong side of history,” she concluded.

Senator Janet Rice today introduced a motion to disallow the Gene Technology Amendment (2019 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2019.

“The deregulation of new genetic modification techniques being pursued by this government has huge economic risks to Australia’s $48 billion agricultural export industry,” Senator Rice said.

“This deregulation could potentially kill our organic farming industry and massively hamper our traditional agriculture export industry too.

“While the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) has assessed this issue on a scientific and health basis, it has paid no consideration to the market impact of deregulation, nor has it properly consulted with the farmers whose livelihoods will be affected.

“There is a strong chance organic regulators locally and internationally will decide that since Australia has deregulated this technology, farmers will lose their organic certification. Without that certification, the organics industry would collapse entirely.

“Europe already says these new technologies are genetic modification technologies, and the risk is that if we proceed with this deregulation, countries such as China and the European Union could reject our exports.

“Australian agricultural exports to China alone are a nearly $12 billion industry,covering a huge suite of agricultural commodities.

“Many in the farming community are concerned that they’re going to lose access to export markets and the government hasn’t allayed those concerns.

“The Greens hope to receive cross-party support when this disallowance motion comes to a vote in the September sitting weeks.”

A bill to ban fracking and give farmers the right to say no to coal seam gas mining and fracking on their land was introduced to the Senate this afternoon for the sixth time by Greens mining and resources spokesperson and Co-Deputy Leader Senator Larissa Waters.
Senator Waters said:
“The Coaltion, led by the Energy Minister, is rolling out the red carpet for the gas industry and with Labor’s push to open up dirty natural gas drilling in the Galilee and Betaloo Basins there’s now even more urgency in giving farmers the right to say no.
“We are in the middle of a drought and climate emergency – we should not be opening new or expanding existing unconventional gas mines which threaten land and water when we have abundant renewable energy that is reliable, jobs rich and genuinely clean. Fracking just the Betaloo Basin would increase Australia’s emissions by 6.6 per cent according to the NT Government’s own report.
“The Greens have been campaigning against the polluting unconventional gas industry since 2010. Instead of expanding gas mining and fracking, the government should be driving a jobs and investment boom in clean renewable energy.
“We have energy alternatives which don’t threaten our climate, health, land, and that will create new jobs for workers and communities – CSG can frack off.
“Since 2011 the Greens have introduced this same bill to give landholders, including traditional owners, the right to say no to coal and gas, and to ban fracking six times now. Labor, Liberal and the National parties have previously voted against it.
“It is particularly shameful of the Nats who just this week have been claiming they stand for farmers’ right to farm yet they never back them against the fossil fuel industry which donates to their political party.
“This bill is a test for the Coalition on where they really stand on food security and the longevity of our rural communities.
“We have precious little good quality agriculture land in Australia and it should be protected from all other inconsistent land uses.
“Farmers should have the legal right to decide that they want to keep farming their land, rather than take the risk of possible long-term groundwater depletion or contamination from coal seam gas mining and fracking.”