Wednesday, 18 March 2026

 Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (10:21): I move:

That this house:

(1)   notes that:

(a) primates, including macaques and marmosets, are highly intelligent and socially complex animals whose use in scientific experimentation raises significant ethical concerns;

(b) Monash University operates a research facility in Victoria where primates are bred, housed and used in experiments;

(c) the keeping of exotic species such as primates is regulated under the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994, which requires permits to ensure the containment of ‘pest’ animals;

(d) concerns have been raised by animal protection organisations and members of the public about the ongoing use of primates in experimentation and the welfare of animals held in research colonies;

(e) calls have been made for primates currently held in research facilities to be retired to appropriate sanctuary environments where possible;

(2)   in accordance with standing order 10.01, requires the Leader of the Government to table in the Council, within four weeks of the house agreeing to this resolution, all documents in the possession, custody or control of the Victorian government relating to primates kept for research purposes by Monash University, including:

(a) Monash University’s pest animal research/education collections permits issued under the Victorian Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994;

(b) any other applications, approvals or renewals associated with those permits;

(c) any documents relating to the potential retirement, relocation or long-term housing of primates currently held in research facilities operated by Monash University; and

(d) any correspondence between the Victorian government and Monash University regarding the keeping, containment or management of primates.

Hidden inside a university laboratory in a small country town near Gippsland, monkeys are being bred, kept out of public view and used for experimental purposes. The facility, operated by Monash University’s Monash Animal Research Platform, has operated in secrecy for over 15 years. It is permitted to hold up to 850 primates, namely marmosets and macaques, and it is the only facility of its kind that we know of here in Victoria. In 2018 research obtained by Animal-Free Science Advocacy revealed some of the experiments conducted at this site. These included deliberately infecting monkeys with HIV to study its effect on their bodies and invasive neurological procedures where their brains were opened up for research. In 2023 my office highlighted findings, also from Animal-Free Science Advocacy, formerly known as Humane Research Australia, which reported the deaths of five macaques at this facility due to heart failure, chronic infections, anaesthesia errors and even from extreme bullying by other primates at the site.

I understand the need to advance medical research to address some of the world’s most serious health concerns, but these occurrences are truly shocking, and the only reason they are publicly released is when dedicated advocacy groups request this hidden information, and they have to fight like hell to get it. I want to understand, if these tests are so crucial, why is the public barred from any meaningful insight into what is happening behind closed doors in our state? People should not be asked to blindly accept that animal experimentation is the only pathway forward. In fact transparency allows the public to make informed choices about what science we want to support. We would never subject human primates to these procedures, so why are non-human primates treated any differently? It begins to feel less like necessity and more like an unwillingness to move beyond practices that should already be behind us, particularly when there are more effective alternatives that already exist.

Monash has claimed that these monkeys cannot be rehomed because of permits issued under Victorian laws, yet nobody has ever seen these permits. Under the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994 primates are classified as so-called declared ‘pest animals’, meaning it is illegal to keep them without a special permit. But the Australian Code for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes requires researchers to actively consider rehoming animals wherever possible, including primates used in experiments. This is precisely why transparency in this situation is essential. The public deserves to see the permit and to understand why retirement or rehoming is being ruled out for these animals and why their suffering is permitted without public scrutiny.

Unlike other research bodies and pharmaceutical companies, Monash University has actually not signed on to the Openness Agreement on Animal Research and Teaching in Australia. This is despite Monash claiming the highest standards of care and that the facility has been formally audited. However, that has only happened once in the past decade. The lack of commitment to transparency is unacceptable when so many questions remain unanswered. In 2020 alone 108 macaques and 63 marmosets were used for research here in Victoria, with almost 600 primates bred in total and 66 deaths of these primates being recorded. This is only a glimpse of the scale of what remains hidden behind laboratory walls in a gated compound here in our state. If research is truly as crucial as Monash University claims, then it should withstand scrutiny. If it cannot, then the public deserves to know. The time for secrecy has passed. Transparency, ethics and accountability demand that these documents be released. I commend the motion to the house.

 Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:26): I am pleased to rise to speak on short-form documents motion 1348, which has been put forward to us today by Ms Purcell and relates to the issue of primates used for research purposes in Victoria. Indeed it does open up and invite a very interesting moral and ethical debate, which we could have and which I suspect I will not be able to sufficiently delve into in the scope of a short-form documents motion debate. However, it does touch on a particular ethical quandary that we do face and indeed many other civilisations face as well. The need for medical research and for it to be done thoroughly and appropriately is of course paramount, and it is something that I reflect upon as Victoria is the nation’s leading centre for medical research and indeed one of the top three centres in the world. Alongside Boston and London in the UK, it is one of the top three centres for medical research. It is important for all types of work to advance that. Notwithstanding that, we do have to be always mindful of animal welfare considerations, and it is something that I am grateful to Ms Purcell for raising with us today, because it is a timely reminder for us to be looking at this through the appropriate lens.

In accordance with the government’s longstanding policy to not oppose short-form document motions requiring the government to provide documents to the house, I can confirm that the government will not be opposing this motion today. Indeed I will concur with Ms Purcell on the point of transparency. Whilst this work is in many cases vitally important, it is not a bad thing for it to be transparent, accountable and publicly disclosed so that that conversation can happen in a mature and evolved sense as to the particular benefits of this type of research or any other particular considerations or changes which may need to be considered.

I do note that this year the government released the Statistics for Animal Use in Research and Teaching, Victoria 2024, which is in a high-level summary report issued by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action which enables us to get a bit of a snapshot of the numbers of animals that we are talking about being used for research purposes, including in particular primates. We know that in 2024 the number of animals used for research and teaching purposes was 32 per cent below the 10-year average. Indeed there are currently 232 Victorian licences to use animals in research and teaching. There were also 92 uses of animal ethics committees, AECs, which are required to be set up in examination of any proposal for research involving animals. An AEC has to be satisfied that the work is scientifically valuable and that any research undertaken is ethically acceptable. The AECs do play a very important role in regulating this sector, and indeed we know that there are 92 AECs currently registered with Animal Welfare Victoria. Animal Welfare Victoria, as a function of the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, plays an important role in overseeing and ensuring probity in this system. These statistics are used to inform broader government policy and compliance programs but also indeed to advise the community, through reporting processes and mechanisms, about the nature and purpose of animals used in science. The code – the national code in fact – also requires that animals be sufficiently rehomed and that as part of any process for consideration through the AEC there are plans in place to ensure the appropriate rehoming of animals once the research has concluded, and indeed Animal Welfare Victoria plays a role in that as well.

It is not just of course primates that are involved in medical research in Victoria. Indeed in some cases domestic dogs and cats, embryonated eggs, whales and dolphins are in some cases as well. But as this motion pertains to primates, I return to my remarks at the start that the government will not be opposing this motion. We are in this state and continue to be one of the world’s leading centres for medical research and innovation. The work that our universities and teaching hospitals do is in so many cases absolutely cutting edge and world leading, and this government will support them to do that and, in supporting this motion today, will do so in a way that ensures that any of that research which involves animals is as accountable and as transparent as it can be.

 Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (10:31): I rise to make a brief contribution on behalf of the Liberals and Nationals in relation to Ms Purcell’s documents motion. May I say as a matter of principle the Liberals and Nationals do not oppose documents motions. We certainly support transparency and the release of documents as an important mechanism in this chamber. I note that we have a long list of documents that have gone through this documents motion process that we are still waiting for the government to actually deliver to Parliament and to the people. I just want to make a point of saying that just because we are supporting a documents motion by the Animal Justice Party it does not mean that we align our policies with the Animal Justice Party. Indeed the Animal Justice Party would have us close down every livestock farm in this state and would have us eating lentils, but animals would have died in the process of growing those lentils, as they do right now. I am just making that very clear. We support the documents motion; we do not support the policies overwhelmingly of the Animal Justice Party.

This motion seeks documents regarding the use of primate research in Monash University, permits in terms of the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994 and renewals, correspondence and materials, and that is fine – let that go through. It is also important to put on record that animal research in Victoria operates in one of the most tightly regulated and ethical frameworks in the world. The National Health and Medical Research Council oversees that, and indeed Australia and Victoria have some of the highest support for ethical research recognised internationally. Indeed, when you put it up against the US, the EU and Canada, it stacks up very highly. These systems certainly ensure that primates and all animals used in research are used under strict justification, continuous monitoring and independent veterinary involvement, and so they should.

We stand for animal welfare, and I note that primates are used very sparingly in relation to this. I am not sure that it is a hidden facility. It is a facility in Victoria that is regulated very highly and used in very important Monash medical research. It is often used as that bridge between the understanding, the research and actual life-saving medical treatment. There has been a list over many decades of the important work that animal research has provided in relation to stroke recovery. Back in the day there were also vaccines that were life saving, not only in Australia but across the world. I note that Monash University have been doing some significant work in terms of cognitive control and treatment of addiction and age-related dementia. No-one wants to see parents or anybody suffering from addiction and age-related dementia. This is very important work that Monash has been doing. Also, in terms of breakthroughs in HIV treatment – again, I am old enough to know about the shocking and devastating effects in the 1980s and 90s of HIV – the progress that has been made through medical research is really awe inspiring, and we must recognise that part of that is certainly from the important work that has been done.

I am a little bit concerned about the retirement of research primates. I do not want this to be a simplistic assumption that you can just retire primates that have really lived their lives in very strictly controlled research environments. It must be guided by veterinary expertise. Whilst there is an element there that may sound reasonable, it must be those people that understand primates to the nth degree. Medical experts must be able to be part of that retirement situation where applicable, so let us walk through cautiously in relation to that. But our position certainly is straightforward: we support the production of documents. We also support the government delivering on the production of documents when we have passed production motions in this house. We support transparency, but we also support evidence-based, high welfare standards and rigorous oversight in Victoria’s research sector while defending the central role of ethical scientific research in protecting and improving human health.

 Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (10:36): I am pleased to rise to speak on Ms Purcell’s documents motion about animal testing facilities. I think particularly we can appreciate today of many days Ms Purcell’s continued dedication and advocacy for animal welfare in the state of Victoria. The motion before us today seeks in accordance with the standing orders a range of documents relating to primates that are being potentially kept for research purposes by Monash University, including permit renewals, the permits themselves and any other documents in relation to the operation of the primate research facilities currently operated by Monash University, and correspondence between them – obviously a matter of some concern to Ms Purcell and others in the community.

There is a range of material that exists on the public record that seeks, as part of a framework, to regulate the use of animals in research and particularly medical research purposes in the state of Victoria. It is not a field of endeavour that is free from government oversight and regulation, particularly because of the concerns that many have about the consequences of that research on the subjects, on those animals. The use of animals for research and testing in this state prohibits any experimentation if there is a valid non-animal alternative. As part of the oversight process animals can only be used in research where an animal ethics committee is satisfied that the work is ethically acceptable and scientifically valuable. They are necessary and appropriate safeguards that we have got in place here.

What is interesting is in January there was a release of a statistical report on the use of animal research in Victoria which showed that animals used in research and teaching in Victoria was 32 per cent below the 10-year average for the report period, which was for the year 2024. I think what it demonstrates is that there is clearly within the field of medical research and within the field of research more broadly an understanding that there are circumstances when it may be required to use animals in research and teaching. We understand and accept that that is part of how research and teaching occur. There are, however, also measures put in place, oversight put in place, to ensure that where that does occur it is occurring in a way that is as a resort only when there are no non-animal alternatives available.

The people who serve on the animal ethics committees oversighting the research program are required to undertake mandatory training for the ethical use of animals, and there have been a number of people who have been through that process. There are 232 current Victorian licences to use animals in research and teaching and 92 animal ethics committees registered with Animal Welfare Victoria. Licence-holders report approximately 2600 projects annually to make up the statistics report. The statistics that are collected and collated in those reports are used to inform government policy but also inform compliance programs, because it is an important part of undertaking a program of compliance with regulations to ensure that the government is properly aware of the nature and location of the proposed activities so the regulators can ensure that they are being conducted in accordance with the regulatory framework. It is also an important source of information to the community.

We do think that these matters are ones that should be taken seriously. The oversight regime and the reporting regime that we have in place in particular are ones that do seek to shed light on these issues. Within the broader community we do want to make sure that both the welfare of those who are subject to testing regimes and the end goal of the research are taken into consideration and that the two matters are dealt with in a way that is consistent with both community expectations and in accordance with the broader regulatory framework here in Victoria. And with that, I will end my contribution.

 Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:41): I would like to add my personal support to and commend Georgie Purcell’s motion to the house. This has long been a passion of mine. In fact it goes back to grade 5 and grade 6 when I did a school project. Anything that shines a greater light, as has been said in this chamber today, in respect to Monash University and the use of primates in their research facility, obviously breeding them, housing them and then testing on them – this is not about a zero-sum game. Everyone appreciates the good work Monash University does in terms of medical research. However, I can only see a world in which that research is enhanced by the transparency that Georgie has proposed today. So my commendation to you, Georgie, on this effort. It is a great step forward.

Motion agreed to.