The Animal Justice Party recognises wild animals as individuals with unique needs, and believes that humanity has a duty to allow them to live their lives unimpeded and unharmed by human actions to the greatest extent possible. We support proactive measures to protect species and their habitats and to reduce or mitigate human impacts by tackling the drivers of biodiversity loss and ecosystem decline.
Key Objectives
- Halt further wildlife habitat destruction and fragmentation by prohibiting native forest logging and land clearing for agriculture (especially animal agriculture).
- Take proactive measures, including provision of financial incentives, to restore and preserve functional ecosystems through rewilding.
- Ensure that adequate and secure funding is provided to government agencies in all jurisdictions to properly enforce wildlife protection laws and take proactive, effective and prompt measures to protect threatened species and ecological communities.
- Amend wildlife protection legislation to remove exemptions that currently allow the killing and injuring of wild animals for damage mitigation and fund research into the development of wildlife-friendly methods of crop protection.
- Remove other exemptions that allow harm to be caused to native wildlife for commercial activities (*e.g.* forestry, kangaroo killing, development and animal agriculture) as well as research and recreation, and include an enforceable duty of care towards animals on a landholder’s property during all land use changes.
- Reduce the alarming mortality rate of native species killed on roads by reducing speed limits; avoid the building of roads through wildlife habitat; invest in the research and development of appropriate technologies to separate wildlife from traffic; impose severe penalties for intentional collisions; introduce wildlife-sensitive components in driver education and training programs; and create a legal duty of care to assist wild animals injured, orphaned or displaced (see Wildlife Care policy).
- Introduce standards for built environments and infrastructure to make them safe for wildlife (*e.g.* wildlife-friendly fencing and netting, wildlife bridges and tunnels) and to prohibit structures, equipment, substances and practices that are known to pose risks to wildlife (*e.g. *barbed wire and cluster fencing).
- Introduce comprehensive education programs in order to foster an appreciation of and respect for wildlife, and address animal cruelty, exploitation, ignorance and short-sighted government policies.
- Support and fund wildlife care organisations as a means to mitigate harm (see Wildlife Care policy).
- Encourage and support sustainable, ethical and respectful wildlife-based tourism in Australia.