Latest news with #NSWAnimalJusticeParty
Perth Now
a day ago
- Politics
- Perth Now
Surprise law that doesn't exist in all states
New Attorney-General Michelle Rowland has been called to address 'pathetic' gaps in bestiality laws, where only three states currently outlaw materials showing acts of the animal torture. While the act of bestiality is illegal, only NSW, Western Australia and Tasmania have banned the possession, distribution and production of materials depicting bestiality. NSW Animal Justice Party MP Emma Hurst said the 'pathetic' gaps in legislation mean authorities don't have the means to convict criminals for committing the horrific crimes. Ms Hurst, who championed stronger laws in NSW, has called for the Commonwealth Criminal Code to introduce new offences for using a carriage service to possess, produce or share animal sexual abuse materials within or outside Australia. She's also calling for a federal taskforce to target offenders perpetrating these crimes. 'Many dangerous criminals are escaping conviction because of gaps in our laws. We must make sure our laws protect children and animals,' she told NewsWire. NSW Animal Justice Party MP Emma Hurst says the current bestiality laws are lacking on a national basis. NewsWire / Simon Bullard. Credit: News Corp Australia She has called on the new federal Attorney-General Michelle Rowland to act immediately. NewsWire / Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia 'While further legislative changes are looking very hopeful in NSW, there is still the enormous issue that across the country, laws are still lacking. 'Given the gravity of the crimes, federal legislation in this space is sorely needed and should be urgently prioritised by the new federal Attorney-General.' Ms Hurst used the example of Northern Territory man Adam Britton who was slapped with a 10 year and five month jail sentence after he pleaded guilt to 60 charges of bestiality, animal cruelty and possessing child abuse material in August 2024. However authorities were unable to charge or convict him of the creation and sharing of bestiality materials due to the lack of such laws in NT legislation. 'There is no law in the NT to prohibit the distribution of such materials so while he was convicted of bestiality, he escaped charges for distribution,' he said. Adam Britton was given a 10-year sentence after pleaded guilty to 60 charges of bestiality, animal cruelty and possessing child abuse material. Credit: Supplied RSPCA NSW general counsel Kathryn Jurd, who has spent eight years running and prosecuting cases for the RSPCA, said differences in state legislation should not act as a barrier to law enforcement charging people with offences which reflect the full extent of their actions. 'When law enforcement discover these heinous crimes, they need to be in a position to charge in a way that reflects exactly what the person has done, what the evidence is capable of proving they have done,' she said. Speaking to the seriousness of cases involving animal sexual abuse material, she said features which 'regularly reoccur' in bestiality cases included the presence of children in the footage, and perpetrators being found in possession of child sexual abuse material. 'People who create animal sexual abuse material don't abide by state lines and the point of the creation of this type of material is often for it to be disseminated globally,' she said. 'Most people would support uniformity, particularly on a topic where there's so much consensus for really strong criminal law coverage across Australia.' An RSPCA lawyer says people who create animal sexual abuse material don't abide by state lines. Credit: News Regional Media While Ms Rowland declined to comment on Ms Hurst's demands, stating that they were a state issue, new shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser gave in-principle support to strengthened laws. 'Acts of bestiality are completely abhorrent,' he said. 'Should the Albanese government seek to introduce national laws to prohibit the creation, possession, and distribution of bestiality materials, I am sure on principle we would be predisposed to support it,' he said.
West Australian
a day ago
- Politics
- West Australian
New Attorney-General Michelle Rowland called to implement national bestiality material laws
New Attorney-General Michelle Rowland has been called to address 'pathetic' gaps in bestiality laws, where only three states currently outlaw materials showing acts of the animal torture. While the act of bestiality is illegal, only NSW, Western Australia and Tasmania have banned the possession, distribution and production of materials depicting bestiality. NSW Animal Justice Party MP Emma Hurst said the 'pathetic' gaps in legislation mean authorities don't have the means to convict criminals for committing the horrific crimes. Ms Hurst, who championed stronger laws in NSW, has called for the Commonwealth Criminal Code to introduce new offences for using a carriage service to possess, produce or share animal sexual abuse materials within or outside Australia. She's also calling for a federal taskforce to target offenders perpetrating these crimes. 'Many dangerous criminals are escaping conviction because of gaps in our laws. We must make sure our laws protect children and animals,' she told NewsWire. 'While further legislative changes are looking very hopeful in NSW, there is still the enormous issue that across the country, laws are still lacking. 'Given the gravity of the crimes, federal legislation in this space is sorely needed and should be urgently prioritised by the new federal Attorney-General.' Ms Hurst used the example of Northern Territory man Adam Britton who was slapped with a 10 year and five month jail sentence after he pleaded guilt to 60 charges of bestiality, animal cruelty and possessing child abuse material in August 2024. However authorities were unable to charge or convict him of the creation and sharing of bestiality materials due to the lack of such laws in NT legislation. 'There is no law in the NT to prohibit the distribution of such materials so while he was convicted of bestiality, he escaped charges for distribution,' he said. RSPCA NSW general counsel Kathryn Jurd, who has spent eight years running and prosecuting cases for the RSPCA, said differences in state legislation should not act as a barrier to law enforcement charging people with offences which reflect the full extent of their actions. 'When law enforcement discover these heinous crimes, they need to be in a position to charge in a way that reflects exactly what the person has done, what the evidence is capable of proving they have done,' she said. Speaking to the seriousness of cases involving animal sexual abuse material, she said features which 'regularly reoccur' in bestiality cases included the presence of children in the footage, and perpetrators being found in possession of child sexual abuse material. 'People who create animal sexual abuse material don't abide by state lines and the point of the creation of this type of material is often for it to be disseminated globally,' she said. 'Most people would support uniformity, particularly on a topic where there's so much consensus for really strong criminal law coverage across Australia.' While Ms Rowland declined to comment on Ms Hurst's demands, stating that they were a state issue, new shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser gave in-principle support to strengthened laws. 'Acts of bestiality are completely abhorrent,' he said. 'Should the Albanese government seek to introduce national laws to prohibit the creation, possession, and distribution of bestiality materials, I am sure on principle we would be predisposed to support it,' he said.
West Australian
3 days ago
- Politics
- West Australian
Animal activists slam NSW plan to pay bounty hunters for feral animal kills
A controversial plan to introduce bounty killings for feral animals and expand hunting rights would 'turn NSW into a South African game park', opponents have claimed. The NSW government came under fire this week after Premier Chris Minns floated the idea of paying shooters for bounties for feral animals, including cats and pigs. The proposal forms part of sweeping reforms proposed by the NSW Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party to hunting rights, including a new minister for hunting. NSW Animal Justice Party MLC Emma Hurst said the Bill would 'take us backward' and bounty killings as a means of population control did not work. 'We know even just from research that these bounty programs don't work, but of course it also allows for extreme animal cruelty,' Ms Hurst said. 'There's no proper sort of oversight or accountability into these programs. It's encouraging a bloodbath for animals. 'The argument that's put forward by the Shooters (party) is that these animals are introduced. 'Therefore, we can do whatever we sort of want to them and we should ignore what animal cruelty is happening to them. 'They have the ability to feel pain and fear and we shouldn't be encouraging some kind of extreme Rambo-style killing spree on these animals within the communities.' Ms Hurst said the Bill, which seeks to open up Crown land to hunting, would 'essentially turn NSW into a South African game park' and waste taxpayer money. She urged for more species-specific control measure for feral animals in NSW, including the use of immunocontraceptive darting that is used overseas. Several feral and invasive species are active in the state, including feral pigs, deer, and camels as well as wild dogs and feral cats. Shooters MLC Rod Borsak said the Bill was about incorporating NSW's about 200,000 licensed hunters into 'the conservation hunting paradigm'. 'The whole idea is to try and develop a system of co-operation … something that brings the recreational hunting side of things into the conservation paradigm,' he said. He went on to add that bounties would 'increase the incentive to farmers and to conservation hunters to go out there and target the animals that we think are important'. Mr Borsak stressed the possibility of bounties to target feral cats that attack native fauna and are 'impossible' to control under the government's current 'instruments'. The long-term Legislative Council representative dismissed the notion that the bounty plan would result in a 'free for all', citing longstanding regulation and safety measures. 'There's a whole lot of rules around all this stuff that has been tried and true for the last 20 years,' Mr Borsak said, referencing concerns about firearms safety. 'Anyone trying to run a scare campaign is moaning in the face of the evidence of what's actually occurred in two or three million hectares of public land in the last 20 years.' Under the plan, a $1m 'pot' would be available for feral pig snouts, which Mr Borsak said could sell for $15-30, with another $1m pool for wild dogs, foxes, and cats. Mr Borsak described hunting as a 'mainstream' activity that 'really benefits rural and regional NSW primarily, and we really should be recognising that'. Under the Bill, spotlighting and the proposed use of thermal scopes would not be allowed on Crown land, including state forests. Nor would the hunting bounty scheme – or any hunting at all – be allowed within national parks in NSW. The proposal was panned by the Invasive Species Council, whose chief executive Jack Gough wrote to Environment Minister Penny Sharpe and Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty. 'I am writing to urge you to reject the latest attempt by the NSW Shooters Party to undermine effective feral animal control in NSW,' Mr Gough said. 'This time through an attempt to secure government funding for bounties. 'Australia's long history of failed bounties has demonstrated they are expensive, ineffective and undermine genuine feral animal control programs.' The council raised concerns that the scheme could be abused by way of fraud, and feral animal control was 'very different from ad hoc killing'. While dismissing the plan, the council has lauded the successes of aerial culling into reducing the population of feral horses in the Snowy Mountains. While significantly different in purpose, planning, and practice, the shooting of brumbies in the Kosciuszko National Park has been equally divisive. A recent state government report found the population of brumbies in the park could be as low as 1500, down from 13,000 to 22,000 last year. Mr Gough welcomed the report as a 'turning point', with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service releasing images of ecological recovery in the park. Ms Hurst questioned the government's earlier numbers and suggested alternatives, like darting, were also available. 'The problem that we have is that there's always this messaging pushed out there that it has to be done urgently and it has to be done as quickly as possible,' she said. 'Of course what happens is when you kill a whole lot of animals in any one system they breed back up pretty quickly, so it's always going to be a Band-Aid solution. 'It is not going to work in the long term.'
Perth Now
3 days ago
- Politics
- Perth Now
Why Aussie state wants bounty hunters
A controversial plan to introduce bounty killings for feral animals and expand hunting rights would 'turn NSW into a South African game park', opponents have claimed. The NSW government came under fire this week after Premier Chris Minns floated the idea of paying shooters for bounties for feral animals, including cats and pigs. The proposal forms part of sweeping reforms proposed by the NSW Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party to hunting rights, including a new minister for hunting. NSW Animal Justice Party MLC Emma Hurst said the Bill would 'take us backward' and bounty killings as a means of population control did not work. 'We know even just from research that these bounty programs don't work, but of course it also allows for extreme animal cruelty,' Ms Hurst said. 'There's no proper sort of oversight or accountability into these programs. It's encouraging a bloodbath for animals. 'The argument that's put forward by the Shooters (party) is that these animals are introduced. 'Therefore, we can do whatever we sort of want to them and we should ignore what animal cruelty is happening to them. 'They have the ability to feel pain and fear and we shouldn't be encouraging some kind of extreme Rambo-style killing spree on these animals within the communities.' NSW Shooters, Fishers and Farmers have proposed a bounty system for feral animals. Credit: News Regional Media Ms Hurst said the Bill, which seeks to open up Crown land to hunting, would 'essentially turn NSW into a South African game park' and waste taxpayer money. She urged for more species-specific control measure for feral animals in NSW, including the use of immunocontraceptive darting that is used overseas. Several feral and invasive species are active in the state, including feral pigs, deer, and camels as well as wild dogs and feral cats. Shooters MLC Rod Borsak said the Bill was about incorporating NSW's about 200,000 licensed hunters into 'the conservation hunting paradigm'. 'The whole idea is to try and develop a system of co-operation … something that brings the recreational hunting side of things into the conservation paradigm,' he said. He went on to add that bounties would 'increase the incentive to farmers and to conservation hunters to go out there and target the animals that we think are important'. Mr Borsak stressed the possibility of bounties to target feral cats that attack native fauna and are 'impossible' to control under the government's current 'instruments'. The long-term Legislative Council representative dismissed the notion that the bounty plan would result in a 'free for all', citing longstanding regulation and safety measures. 'There's a whole lot of rules around all this stuff that has been tried and true for the last 20 years,' Mr Borsak said, referencing concerns about firearms safety. 'Anyone trying to run a scare campaign is moaning in the face of the evidence of what's actually occurred in two or three million hectares of public land in the last 20 years.' NSW Animal Justice Party MLC Emma Hurst said the Bill would 'take us backward'. NewsWire / Simon Bullard. Credit: News Corp Australia Under the plan, a $1m 'pot' would be available for feral pig snouts, which Mr Borsak said could sell for $15-30, with another $1m pool for wild dogs, foxes, and cats. Mr Borsak described hunting as a 'mainstream' activity that 'really benefits rural and regional NSW primarily, and we really should be recognising that'. Under the Bill, spotlighting and the proposed use of thermal scopes would not be allowed on Crown land, including state forests. Nor would the hunting bounty scheme – or any hunting at all – be allowed within national parks in NSW. The proposal was panned by the Invasive Species Council, whose chief executive Jack Gough wrote to Environment Minister Penny Sharpe and Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty. 'I am writing to urge you to reject the latest attempt by the NSW Shooters Party to undermine effective feral animal control in NSW,' Mr Gough said. 'This time through an attempt to secure government funding for bounties. 'Australia's long history of failed bounties has demonstrated they are expensive, ineffective and undermine genuine feral animal control programs.' The council raised concerns that the scheme could be abused by way of fraud, and feral animal control was 'very different from ad hoc killing'. While dismissing the plan, the council has lauded the successes of aerial culling into reducing the population of feral horses in the Snowy Mountains. While significantly different in purpose, planning, and practice, the shooting of brumbies in the Kosciuszko National Park has been equally divisive. A recent state government report found the population of brumbies in the park could be as low as 1500, down from 13,000 to 22,000 last year. Mr Gough welcomed the report as a 'turning point', with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service releasing images of ecological recovery in the park. Ms Hurst questioned the government's earlier numbers and suggested alternatives, like darting, were also available. 'The problem that we have is that there's always this messaging pushed out there that it has to be done urgently and it has to be done as quickly as possible,' she said. 'Of course what happens is when you kill a whole lot of animals in any one system they breed back up pretty quickly, so it's always going to be a Band-Aid solution. 'It is not going to work in the long term.'
