Call for Government to ‘sever all official ties’ with Animals Australia

The live export industry has called on the Federal Government to “take serious action” on concerns raised in Parliament about animal activist group Animals Australia and allegations involving cash payments it made to a livestock vessel crew member. The Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council chief executive Mark Harvey-Sutton said the allegations made by Liberal Member for O’Connor Rick Wilson and Senator Slade Brockman were longstanding, and that the controversy meant that Animals Australia should be precluded from advising the Department for Agriculture and have its charitable status reviewed by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. “The serious claims raised in Parliament point to a culture of unethical behaviour by Animals Australia,” Mr Harvey-Sutton said. “ALEC has always maintained that the practice of paying people in livestock export supply chains creates a market incentivising animal cruelty and also demonstrates that activist groups are willing to take advantage and manipulate vulnerable people in our supply chains.” He said while the minister was right to listen to a spectrum of views from the community, he should not be taking advice from interest groups with “serious allegations like these hanging over them”. Mr Wilson said the group’s business model involved using “visual footage, sometimes paid for with large sums of money, to attack legitimate agricultural industries and undermine public trust”. “Animals Australia uses photographs and videos of animals in distress to raise donations,” he said. “This money is then used to acquire new footage of animals suffering. “This cycle is for the sole purpose of de-legitimising agricultural, particularly livestock production.” The letter spelled out details of “significant evidence in the public domain” that Animals Australia had paid more than $100,000 to the key witness and “whistleblower” Fazal Ullah, in the case against Emanuel Exports for alleged animal welfare breaches on board the Awassi Express in 2017. The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development dropped its case against Emanuel Exports in the Perth Magistrates Court on November 14, citing it was no longer in the public interest to pursue a conviction. Mr Wilson claimed funds were supplied to Mr Ullah “before, during and after his time on the Awassi Express”. “This money provides a considerable financial incentive to produce footage of animals suffering, especially when the wage for a deckhand is less than $US500 per month on these vessels,” he said. Mr Wilson said an email trail between Animals Australia and Mr Ullah provided evidence to support his claims. He said a former shipmate of Mr Ullah’s, Mahmood Rasa Mazher, had made a sworn affidavit that “supported the allegations of cash for cruelty”, following the April 2018 60 Minutes footage of the Awassi Express incident, emphasising that “many of the issues shown in the footage were Fazal’s responsibility”. “I cannot prove that Fazal shut off the ventilation systems on the ship, but it is my suspicion that is what he did,” Mr Mazher said. Mr Wilson said if Mr Watt continued to allow Animals Australia “a privileged position” in discussions with the department, “then you share their moral culpability”. “The fact they have a special place at the table with DAFF (Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) legitimises their activities, and their attacks upon agriculture,” he said. Animals Australia chief executive Glenys Oogjes, who was recently named the 2024 Victorian Senior Australian of the Year for her work in animal advocacy, said it was noteworthy that Mr Wilson had chosen to make his claims under the protection of parliamentary privilege. “Any suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of Animals Australia is denied,” Ms Oogjes said. “The only parties that stand rightfully accused of ‘cash for cruelty’ are the live sheep export companies — which have made hundreds of millions of dollars on the back of incalculable and egregious animal suffering.”