THE Animal Justice Party has been overlooked as a party for the agricultural community, says its candidate for Mildura, Angylina Zayn.
“Country people are often written off as not caring about animal protection and that couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Ms Zayn, who migrated to Mildura from Turkey when she was seven years old, said she was proud of how representative the Animal Justice Party was when selecting candidates.
“We have people in every Lower House seat in the state,” she said. “More than 20 are young people and I’m so proud that we are stepping up and showing that we can have a voice.”
The candidate for the Northern Victoria Georgie Purcell said there needed to be a renewed focus on “intensive animal agriculture” and that Victoria’s leaders and populace needed to come to terms with the industry’s role in a looming climate change disaster.
“It produces more emissions than all forms of transport combined,” Ms Purcell said. “It’s important to discuss getting cars off the road but it’s just as important to talk about this other issue that people won’t recognise.”
Ms Zayn said she was “extremely concerned” about the loopholes that exempted farm animals from animal welfare legislation, particularly in the area of mandatory shelter.
Ms Purcell said she was “realistic” about the outcome of the election but that “a strong primary vote showing the major parties that people do care about animals, particularly people in the regions” would be a victory.
Sonia Brymer also announced her candidacy for Mildura as an independent.
