Tuesday, 20 February 2024

Fur industry

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (18:46): (705) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Consumer Affairs, and the action I seek is for her to provide an update on the taskforce into mislabelled fur products in Victoria. For the past four years the Animal Justice Party has led investigations into fur products sold across Melbourne. Samples purchased from popular Melbourne markets have consistently revealed the labelling on fashion and accessory items to be wildly misleading. DNA testing revealed that it is common for fur products to list incorrect species and, most shockingly, masquerade as faux fur. The fact that someone who walks into a store with the intention to purchase ethically could walk out unknowingly wearing a raccoon, dog or mink is beyond disturbing.

In 2019 the then minister committed to working with Consumer Affairs Victoria on their own investigations. Soon after the government revealed that, to the date, 100 per cent of the samples they independently tested were incorrectly labelled. Every single item was misleading consumers. In 2022 a pair of unlabelled gloves purchased from Queen Victoria Market was found by the Animal Justice Party and Collective Fashion Justice to be made from domestic cat – fibres from a barbaric industry, which are rightly banned from entering Australia. Our animal protection laws prohibit the kind of cruelty that takes place on fur farms, but in selling these products in Victoria we are undeniably complicit in it. The fur industry permits the beating, suffocation and electrocution of fully conscious animals. Ninety-five per cent of them are intensively farmed, and the rest are caught in the wild and killed using wire snares or foothold traps.

In recent years we have learned more about the risks of intensively farmed wildlife. Importantly, these environments are both a source and a hotbed for global pandemics. Animals are housed in such proximity that disease spreads dangerously fast, producing limitless carnage. In 2020 across Europe and the US the mink fur industry collapsed following extensive COVID outbreaks in animals. Denmark ordered the slaughter of over 17 million animals after mutations of the virus were found to be transmittable to humans. We have seen a huge move away from the sale and production of fur, with countries such as Austria, Belgium and France leading the way.

Fashion is all but done with real fur. Trends have clearly moved away from full-length coats and shawls with fox heads still attached. What remains are fur trimmings on a handful of hats, shoes or bags, and even those are losing steam. But we must understand the role Victoria plays internationally. Not only does fur harm animals but it also significantly harms people and our environment. I hope the minister will provide an update on Victoria’s labelling investigation as a first step to ending this cruel and outdated trade.