I rise today to speak on the Justice Legislation Further Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2025. This is an omnibus bill which has been reflected upon by previous speakers, and I am sure that each speaker will pick up a certain element of it that is relevant to their constituency, relevant to their personal interests, particularly aggrieves them or that they hope will address some issues in the community.
There are two aspects that I would like to specifically focus on, the first of which is the Drug Courts. The Drug Courts of course are an opportunity for people who are heavily drug-affected. Often there is a cohort of people who have got mental health issues also that are partially driving their offending, and the Drug Court does provide an opportunity for people to get that drug and alcohol rehabilitation support. It is very, very important that we have those opportunities available to those that are being sentenced but also to the wider community.
I have had a couple of instances in my community of Lowan, and in Horsham and in Hamilton, where parents have actually come forward saying that it is part of the orders that they undertake drug and alcohol treatment. However, they are unable to access that, and this is a very big problem when often the offender or the person who has a drug or alcohol addiction issue knows that they need some support and treatment, the court orders them to get drug and alcohol treatment, their friends and family members want to support them to access drug and alcohol treatment and yet they cannot access that treatment in Victoria.
There has been a gross underinvestment in drug and alcohol rehabilitation beds and other treatment services right across the state. It means that Victorians have to wait longer for that treatment, and that can have disastrous impacts on not just that individual who needs to seek treatment but also family, friends and workplaces.
We know that it leads to an increase in violence, including family violence and other violent offending. It is something that this government has failed to address. There are bottlenecks around accessing rehabilitation and treatment. In terms of the detox beds, there has not been an investment in that area in the state of Victoria, and as a result people are waiting longer and longer and longer for treatment and we are falling behind when it comes to the measure of how many rehab beds per Victorian there are available here, as opposed to New South Wales.
We need to get to a point of parity – and this is something I have been saying for a very long time, about 10 years – so we need to make sure we invest in those support services. It is an important aspect of health services. If we do not address this, we will have consequential issues which are far more expensive for the taxpayer to deal with than actually just providing treatment that people need when they need it.
Speaking to people who have an alcohol addiction and have to white-knuckle it until they can get support and treatment – this is not good enough in this state. While the Drug Court in and of itself is a good thing – in my view it is good for the community and for those who are offending due to their drug and alcohol issues – we have got other parts of the puzzle that need to be put in place to be able to allow for those orders to be enacted, not just for those that offend, but for the broader Victorian community as well.
The second element that I would like to speak to in this omnibus bill is in regard to the animal abuse amendments. Of course I do not know of anybody who would say that we would oppose any matters which strengthen legislation to prevent the obscene abuse of animals. The production of that material, the circulation of that material – whatever it is, we do not want to see animal abuse, which includes sexual abuse of animals and sadistic abuse of animals. That is completely unacceptable in this state.
My concern is that we have many animal activist groups who will take grey areas in legislation and utilise them for another purpose, and that purpose is to shut down the intensive agricultural production practices. We see that in place in Victoria. We have court cases in Victoria. I know there is an appeal at the moment underway where a case had been dismissed, but unfortunately – and this was highlighted in the pig welfare inquiry that was undertaken in the upper house and published its report in June 2024 – evidence was heard that indicated that is exactly what some extreme animal activists seek to do. They seek to utilise the court system, which is very, very expensive, very time consuming and very, very stressful for producers who are otherwise doing the right thing.
The thing that extreme animal activists find offensive is that an animal is being slaughtered and packaged and that humans will consume that animal at the end of the day. It must be made very, very clear that if there is an illegal trespass onto a property those extreme animal activists are appropriately prosecuted – that if we see the actions of groups like the Farm Transparency Project, where they illegally obtain CCTV footage of practices which are completely within codes and standards not just in Victoria but nationally, that is not then prosecuted as animal cruelty.
Some people for conscientious reasons choose to be vegan because they consider the consumption of meat as being a torturous act or something that is not acceptable. I absolutely respect their views, but that view cannot be taken to the next level. It cannot be used as a targeted way to shut down livestock production in Victoria. That is why I have had many discussions with the Minister for Agriculture, and I thank her and her staff for their time, because the issues that were highlighted in the inquiry into pig welfare in Victoria could potentially be enacted through this legislation by broadening the scope, in particular, of cruelty.
As we have heard earlier, I cannot understand why anybody would ever think that the production of videos with sexual content could possibly gratify anybody. But I would like to think that very few people think that way. We need to have laws that catch people that are doing the wrong thing, but we equally need to make sure there are protections in place for the intensive animal production sector, where they are doing the right thing, where they are doing everything they can.
It was noted through the evidence provided in the pig welfare inquiry by so many peak bodies, by Agriculture Victoria and by farmers themselves that Victoria is world-renowned for the way that we treat our animals. Animal welfare is so important to our producers, and there is an intrinsic value in protecting their animals. They do care for them deeply because they want them to flourish, they want to make sure that they are healthy animals and they want to make sure that they are fed well and they are watered well.
You see on the television, if you go out on a farm and if you speak to people when they are going through drought or when there is a lack of feed after fire, the distress of farmers, because what they care for first and foremost is their animals. I would hate to think that there is an inadvertent capture of people who are doing the right thing within this legislation.
While I understand it is a very, very uncomfortable topic – I do not want to ever be speaking in this place about bestiality or sadistic and cruel harm to animals – we do need to make sure that those people are caught in the net for doing the wrong thing. I condemn anybody who is doing the wrong thing. I do hope that this legislation will help to protect animals from those egregious acts.
I also hope that there is not the malicious use of this legislation to shut down the meat industry in Victoria. Our farmers are striving to do their best to make sure that they have the best possible animal welfare outcomes in Victoria. I do urge the government to clarify those matters and ensure that there is no grey area that could be exploited for lengthy and expensive court procedures.