Today, Green Party MP Steve Abel has added a new Member’s Bill to the biscuit tin to ensure any product sold in New Zealand meets New Zealand’s animal welfare standards, even if it’s produced overseas.

“We shouldn’t allow on our supermarket shelves what we wouldn’t allow on our farms,” says Green Party Agriculture and Animal Welfare spokesperson, Steve Abel.

“This is about fairness for animals and for farmers.

“We’re proud of our animal welfare laws here in New Zealand, but right now those laws have a glaring loophole.

“Currently, products which come from animals who have been kept or slaughtered in conditions which would be illegal here, like in sow stalls or battery cages, are still able to be imported and sold in our supermarkets.

“New Zealanders don’t want to see our welfare values undermined by a loophole that allows cruelty to enter through the back door.

“My Bill will ensure that imported products meet the same basic standards we expect on our own farms.

“We can set a global standard that says robust animal welfare doesn’t stop at our borders.

“New Zealanders have been clear that they don’t want animals to suffer here or overseas. A recent poll showed that 83% of New Zealanders want the Government to act to align import standards with domestic laws.

“I will be working across the House to turn this Bill into law.

“If it’s too cruel to produce here, it should be too cruel to sell here,” says Steve Abel.

NOTES 

• The Bill empowers the Minister to pass regulations to close the welfare gap on any imported animal product but requires that the Minister must make regulations regarding pigs and egg-laying hens within two years of this Bill coming into force.
• Most countries exporting to New Zealand have poor or lower animal welfare standards in comparison. For example:
• Sow stalls: Around 90% of pork imported into New Zealand comes from countries like Canada, United States and some European countries that allow the use of sow stalls, in which mother pigs are confined to narrow cages where they cannot perform basic behaviours, such as turn around or build nests. New Zealand banned sow stalls in 2016 after a public outcry.
• Battery cages: 86% of liquid egg imports in 2022 came from China and Australia where egg-laying hens can be kept in battery cages where there is less space than an A4 sheet of paper per bird leaving them unable to perform natural behaviour such as dust bathing and nesting. New Zealand’s ban on battery cages came into force in 2023.
• Live lamb cutting (mulesing): All of the wool imported to New Zealand in 2022 came from Australia where live lamb cutting is a widely used practice. It entails removing parts of the skin from live sheep without anaesthetic, causing severe immediate and long-term pain to lambs. In New Zealand performing mulesing can result in a criminal conviction.
• Fish slaughter: 73% of fish imported into New Zealand comes from Thailand, China, Australia, and Vietnam - all countries with no welfare standards around slaughter. New Zealand has a Code of Welfare (Commercial Slaughter) 2018 that concerns aquatic animals at the time of slaughter.

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