Friendly: Animal Justice Party's Member for Northern Victoria Georgie Purcell.
Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell is the youngest woman elected to the Victorian Legislative Council, after finishing fourth on the ballot in last November's state election.
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With only 1.53 per cent of the first preference vote, Ms Purcell outstandingly received the most second preference votes, 13,687, to make her one of Northern Victoria's five members of the Legislative Council.
The Riv spoke to her to find out more about her and how she is going to represent the northern region of Victoria.
She joined the Animal Justice Party in 2012, during protests at the Spring Racing Carnival, when the party was trying to get to 50 members.
“That is something that I really like to reflect on, because now in 2023, we have thousands of members in Victoria and we are really growing as a party,” Ms Purcell said.
“We have had two MPs elected now and at the time that I joined, I just didn’t see that we would progress and grow so quickly and become such a powerful, powerful political force.”
Before standing for the Victorian Legislative Council, the 30-year-old was the chief of staff for the party’s former MP, Andy Meddick, worked as a union official, and is admitted as an Australian lawyer.
Ms Purcell knows that she is a representative of all of northern Victoria, despite being elected on a platform that focuses on animal protection.
“The people in northern Victoria can rely on me to advocate for the issues, even if they don’t relate to animals,” she said.
“I am very passionate about socially progressive issues as a whole and I really want to improve the lives of everyone living in the region.
“I am here to listen to constituents about the areas that they have issues and where they have concerns and improvements that they want to see in terms of infrastructure.
“Obviously living in the region myself, I understand many of the improvements that we need to make outside of the animal protection space, such as in healthcare, particularly reproductive healthcare.”
Ms Purcell thinks that it is a ‘common myth’ that country people don’t care about animals, which she thinks could not be further from the truth.
“I think it is important that the people in northern Victoria voted for me this election because we are a community that overwhelmingly cares about animals and wants to see them better protected,” she said.
Hello there: Georgie Purcell at her home in the Macedon Ranges.
She is passionate about changing the law for animals, with her number one priority being to end recreational duck shooting in Victoria.
“In Western Australia, the Labor Government there banned duck shooting before I was even born and now I’m a member of parliament and I’m fighting for Victoria to finally do the same thing,” she said.
“Labor also banned duck shooting in New South Wales and in Queensland, so we want Victoria to follow the predecessors in other states and do the same thing.
“We really like to call Victoria the progressive state, but we are just so behind on animal welfare issues in comparison to other states.”
She is calling on the Andrews Labor Government to hold an inquiry into the greyhound racing industry.
“It is absolutely dreadful, how many greyhounds are killed on the track each year, and despite the government and the industry trying to make all of these so-called safety improvements to the track, more dogs actually died in 2022 than the year before,” she said.
“Just two days into 2023, the first dog was killed on the track in Australia and it actually happened in Victoria, so we think there is a real problem.
“There is obviously all of the other issues that go on with greyhound racing in terms of the overbreeding of dogs, with the industry breeding so many dogs that it is simply impossible to rehome them all, meaning that they often go missing.
“We think that this industry is very quickly losing its social licence and we want to have an inquiry into what reforms we can bring about to make the industry better.”
Taking the view that working in politics you need to be pragmatic and cooperative, and that even small changes can make a difference, Ms Purcell is taking to the government requests for better funding of animal welfare and rescue groups, along with more support for people and their pets fleeing family violence in the regions.
Outside of the Animal Justice Party, Ms Purcell is the president of the anti-puppy farm organisation, Oscars Law, and as a result shares her life with four ex-puppy farm dogs Stephen, Stella, Aggie and Greta.
Ms Purcell has been living on a micro sanctuary for rescued farm animals in the Macedon Ranges for six years and now lives with the dogs, 17 sheep, three horses, four cats and a 43-year-old donkey called Duncan.
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