I am writing to you, as one of your local constituents, to urge you to take action to end cosmetics cruelty in Australia by supporting the introduction of comprehensive and meaningful legislation which prohibits all new animal testing for cosmetics.
On the 1st of June 2017, the Federal Government introduced the Industrial Chemicals Bill 2017, which includes a ban the use of new animal test data for ingredients used solely in cosmetics from 1 July 2018. Although I welcome this progress towards ensuring a ban on cosmetics cruelty in Australia, I am concerned. As most substances are not used solely as cosmetic ingredients, the current wording of the ban means that some cosmetic ingredients will still be able to be newly animal tested and introduced to the Australia even after enactment of the proposed ban.
This is an important departure from existing bans in more than 30 countries, including the world’s largest cosmetics market the European Union, Norway, Switzerland, Israel, and India, which have all banned the use of newly animal-tested ingredients when introducing or marketing cosmetics.
I am very concerned that these loopholes in the Bill will allow some ingredients newly tested on animals to slip into cosmetics sold in Australia, and want to see a full ban that prevents all new animal testing for cosmetics, not just some.
The Government should stand by their commitment to “ban the testing of finished cosmetic products and cosmetic ingredients on animals in Australia, and the sale of cosmetic products and ingredients that have been tested on animals outside of Australia”, and enact a REAL ban that will actually prohibit cosmetics cruelty in Australia.
The loopholes within the Industrial Chemical Bill 2017 are unnecessary and are not consistent with the Government’s commitment to a ban, nor other global cosmetics animal testing bans. If the Bill goes through unamended, the ban would be very limited and the Government’s election commitment completely undermined.
The #BeCrueltyFree Australia campaign has made a submission to the recent Senate Inquiry on the Bill, and recommends amendments to ensure the animal test data ban applies comprehensively to all ingredients introduced for cosmetic purposes. I fully support the amendments set out in the #BeCrueltyFree submission, as these amendments would:
- ensure ingredients newly tested on animals are not allowed to be introduced for cosmetic purposes through a ‘multi-use’ loophole.
- properly fulfil the government’s commitment to the electorate in 2016 to ban animal testing for cosmetics.
- properly align Australia with EU and best practice on this issue.
As one of your local constituents, I'm asking you to support a REAL ban on cosmetics cruelty by supporting these amendments to the Industrial Chemicals Bill 2017 which would prohibit all new animal testing for cosmetics, so that we can ensure Australia is the next country to truly say no to cruel cosmetics.
