Animal Welfare Amendment Bill

The Animal Welfare Amendment Bill proposes to amend the Animal Welfare Act 1999 to ban the export of livestock (cattle, deer, sheep, and goats) by sea.

On 14 April 2021, Cabinet announced its decision to ban the export of livestock by sea, with a transition period of up to 24 months.

Currently, it is an offence to export an animal from New Zealand to another country without an animal welfare export certificate under the Animal Welfare Act. The bill would prohibit applications for, and the issue of, animal welfare export certificates for the export of cattle, deer, sheep, and goats by ship if the animals would leave New Zealand on or after 30 April 2023. This change would ban the live export of those animals from 30 April 2023, which is approximately 24 months from the date that Cabinet announced its initial decision.

This bill is available online from the ‘Related links’ panel.

What do you need to know?

• Submissions are publicly released and published to the Parliament website. Only your name or organisation’s name is required on a submission. Please keep your contact details separate, as if they are included on the submission they will become publicly available when the submission is released.
• If you wish to include information of a private or personal nature in your submission you should discuss this with the clerk of the committee before submitting.
• If you wish to speak to your submission, please state this clearly.

Further guidance on making a submission can be found from the ‘How to make a submission’ link in the ‘Related documents’ panel.

If you have any questions about your submission or the submission process please contact the Committee Staff through the contact details provided on this page.