In late February the Australian Senate passed the Industrial Chemicals Bills 2017. With the passage of this bill and the specific measures included ( like prohibiting reliance on new animal test data for chemicals) companies will no longer be able to use the data they get “from animal testing when introducing a new chemical or ingredient to the beauty sector.”1 Animal lovers rejoice!
Thankfully, these new measures should help reduce reliance on animal testing and thereby encourage the development of non-animal methods. It’s about time! (This bill is in line with the wishes of 85 percent of Australians.)
Animal welfare supporters were thrilled with the news:
Cruelty Free International’s Director of Public Affairs, Kerry Postlewhite, said in a statement,
“We congratulate the Australian Government, parliamentarians from across the country’s political parties, citizens and consumers who have campaigned hard and the animal protection organizations that worked tirelessly to achieve this result. This is great news for animals, great news for Australia and great news for moves to bring this cruel, outdated and unnecessary practice to an end globally, everywhere and forever.”1
And Hannah Stuart, HSI Campaign Manager for #BeCrueltyFree Australia, said,
“We are pleased to welcome this milestone in moving to end reliance on cruel and outdated cosmetic animal testing in Australia. This commitment by the Government to further restrict the use of new animal test data for cosmetic uses, and to reduce reliance on animal testing more broadly as well, come as a product of nearly three years of intensive negotiations with Humane Society International.
Paired with the Government’s additional commitments to HSI, this ban reflects both the global trend to end cosmetics cruelty, and the will of the Australian public which opposes using animals in the development of cosmetics. We thank the Government for showing leadership on this important issue, and HSI will continue to work with them to implement the commitments and enforce a robust ban. This is a huge win for animals, consumers, and science.”1
Well done, Australia. This is wonderful news.
And in case you missed the news, California banned it as well about six months ago:
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