Prawn eyestalk ablation
Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (09:48): I have been waiting for my opportunity to talk about prawns in this place. They are amazing creatures – so much so that I have one tattooed on my arm. But not everyone feels the same way that I do, and that is why I want to talk to you all today about eyestalk ablation and hopefully enlighten some in this place to take prawns off their plate. Eyestalk ablation is a practice performed by prawn farms that involves literally cutting the eyestalks off prawns without pain relief in order to make them breed faster and therefore produce more prawns. This is because a female prawn has a hormonal gland behind her eye that moderates reproduction, only allowing her to breed when conditions are suitable. But the stressful environment on farms can make prawns reluctant to reproduce, and if this gland is destroyed by blinding, it forces her into sexual maturity more rapidly.
In 2017 the government committed to throwing out our Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 and replacing it with a brand new, fit-for-purpose animal care and protection act by 2019. Since that announcement six years have passed by, along with five agriculture ministers, two elections and no delivery. However, since then they have committed to including decapod crustaceans, which are prawns and their various relatives, in this new act, as well as legislating sentience. I can only hope that, as part of that, eyestalk ablation will soon be a thing of the past.