Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak tonight about the tragic plight of hens and the recent policy shift that has occurred in my state of Tasmania in regard to their treatment and care, through the banning of future battery hen facilities in Tasmania and an end to battery hen operations in the state. In 2011, each Australian consumed on average 192 eggs per year. Of the eggs sold in 2011, 34 per cent were laid by hens in free-range environments and nine per cent in barn environments—a huge increase on the combined total of 20.6 per cent in these more tolerable and humane environments for hens as recently as 2005. But, despite this change, over the past six years the majority of eggs, around 55 per cent, are still collected from hens who spend their lives in cramped, usually dark and sometimes suffocating and crushing cages.

Most battery hens in Australia, of which there are about 12 million, live in a space smaller than one A4 sheet of paper. Their instincts to spread their wings, clean themselves and move around are constantly frustrated, and brushing up against the wire mesh that imprisons them causes them to lose their feathers. They are expected to labour in that space for up to 18 months, producing an egg every 30 hours, before their egg-laying rate declines and they are considered at the end of their useful life, and disposed of accordingly. By the time they die, usually having lived less than 20 per cent of their natural lives, one in six hens will have broken bones sustained as a result of muscle and bone weakness caused by drastically limited range of movement, not usually being able to stand due to the low roofs in their cages. By any measure, these animals live miserable lives in producing a product that most of us take for granted every day. The production of eggs in Australia is guided by the model code of practice for the welfare of animals for domestic poultry, a voluntary code which has been recognised by the Primary Industries Ministerial Council which effectively shields the industry from scrutiny of the conditions in which it keeps hens and allows the industry to market their products to consumers according to industry developed standards. These standards include the terms to which I referred earlier—cage eggs, barn eggs and free-range eggs—and they can be modified. And, despite the hope and belief of many in the community that these standards would be progressively improved, there are a number of changes under consideration right now that would actually worsen conditions for hens.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is currently considering a trademark application lodged by the Australian Egg Corporation that would allow farms with up to 20,000 hens on a single hectare to label their eggs as 'free range', despite the fact that the current standard for 'free range' is set at 1,500 hens per hectare. Submissions to this determination close this Wednesday, 20 June. There are many considerations involved in that determination, including whether stocking densities are a core part of free-range egg production and whether those densities are to the public good. Regardless of the decision the ACCC makes, I have grave concerns about any step that further exacerbates the already appalling conditions for so many of these creatures.

In my view, there is little justification for such appalling treatment of hens or of any other animal which we rely on, or choose to raise, for food. I do not think that one has to have a dogmatic or strict approach to vegetarianism or veganism to find the excessive cruelty and brutality of battery-hen egg production practices nauseating and unnecessary. Certainly, I believe that we have a responsibility to reduce suffering wherever we can—an obligation that extends to nonhumans such as animals, and others who are not able to speak for themselves. Our treatment of those over whom we exercise such total power reflects the character of our community, and I do not think battery-hen conditions are a good or true reflection of our community.

This issue has been a constant source of community discussion in Tasmania for 30 years or more, thanks in part to the staunch advocacy of community members like the late Pam Clarke, known as 'the chook woman', who began campaigning against conditions in battery farms in 1978. In relation to Pam Clarke, Dr Alison Alexander wrote:

Hens were debeaked, kept in tiny cages and never saw daylight. Clarke thought once the authorities knew of the situation, it would stop. She protested to parliament, rang a bell to interrupt speakers, danced with a two-metre high hen, Battery Bertha, on the steps of Parliament House, and tried physically to free battery hens from farms. Her protests caused her to be charged more than fifty times, and she spent eight days in eight stints in Risdon Gaol.

In addition to Pam Clarke's activism, we have had other activists and organisations—like Against Animal Cruelty Tasmania—pick up the fight against battery-hen farming. Along the way, those activists were successful in bringing the plight of these animals to the attention of the Tasmanian parliament and its parliamentarians. I want to acknowledge my former ministerial colleague the Hon. David Llewellyn AM, who worked long and hard to bring national attention to this issue. In 2008, he introduced in the Tasmanian parliament a bill to ensure minimal standards of welfare and a duty of care for farmers in charge of animals. I remember discussing how I often noticed that the free-range eggs on the supermarket shelves—and this continues today—were often all gone and it was only the cage eggs that remained, with many people having no choice but to purchase those caged eggs. What that showed then and continues to show today is that the community and consumers are starting to be more and more aware of what they purchase and that they prefer to purchase free-range eggs. I know that well-known chef Kylie Kwong makes a deliberate approach of only using free-range eggs in her restaurants. In fact, a number of restaurants now actually put it on their menus that they use free-range eggs, to assure consumers about what they are eating.

David Llewellyn has now left the Tasmanian parliament, but his views have been reflected in the Tasmanian Labor government's recent decision to support primary producers involved in intensive farming to transition out of battery egg production and in the commitment of Minister Bryan Green to ban future battery facilities. The government announced last month, in the lead-up to the Tasmanian state budget, that it would immediately ban any future battery hen operations and cap the number of existing pens in production. Minister Green is working with the industry to develop a transition plan which will see an end to battery hen operations in Tasmania and instead see the demand for locally produced eggs, particularly free range, as the market trend. I am pleased to learn that the Tasmanian industry acknowledges it is time for such a change and that it will work with the government during the transition.

The Tasmanian government's commitment also extends to the phasing out of sow stalls by the middle of next year, fully four years before the pork industry's target of 2017. The problems posed by pregnant-sow crates are similar to those faced by battery hens: limited movement that creates frailness, fear and stress in animals that are counted only as productive units. I want to recognise the courage of Minister Green and others in the government, not least Premier Lara Giddings and member for Lyons, Rebecca White, whose approach to this issue is based not only on compassion towards these vulnerable animals but also on recognising that Tasmania has a unique place in the nation in producing premium, pure and ethical foods.

Senate a djourned at 22:2 7