It appears that the Australian Greens’ push to appear as a more moderate party following the promotion of Senator Richard di Natale to leader hasn’t lasted long, with the party still clearly holding on to extreme animal rights views. New South Wales Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon introduced its Voice for Animals (Independent Office of Animal Welfare) Bill 2015 in Parliament on June 23, which calls for the appointment of an ‘independent animal welfare commissioner’.
In the proposed Bill, Senator Rhiannon highlights the Greens’ desire for live exports to be closely controlled by this commissioner, and that the commissioner should have free reign to comment and report on any animal welfare issues.
After falling flat on its face when the same Bill was introduced in 2013, the Greens are again pushing an extreme animal rights agenda. Indeed, this Bill is clearly a direct attack on the rights of farmers and hunters to harvest animals for food, recreational hunting and pest management control.
The SSAA is disappointed that the Greens are still holding on to the fanciful and extreme ideology that animals are somehow equal to humans, and suggests that the party concentrate on developing pragmatic policies, instead of attacking our nation’s farmers and hunters who legitimate utilise animals for food and conservation.