Mr Mark Pearson, State Convenor

Mark Pearson, the first Australian Member of Parliament to be elected on an animal justice platform, and was elected to the NSW Legislative Council in March 2015. Within a year of being elected to parliament, Mark introduced a bill seeking to protect farm animals from cruelty and called for mandatory surveillance cameras in all intensive livestock facilities and abattoirs. In 2018, Mark introduced his next bill, calling to ban the use of exotic animals in circuses in NSW – paving the way for work now being continued by MP Emma Hurst. In 2019, Mark introduced a bill to ban the practice of mulesing and mandate pain relief for other invasive procedures, and recently successfully sent this bill to a parliamentary inquiry.

Mark’s positions in Parliament included Chair of the Select Committee on Animal Cruelty Laws in NSW and Deputy Chair of an inquiry into koala populations and habitat. While Mark’s portfolio tends to focus on wild animals and the environment, such as his long-running battle to ban Australia’s kangaroo trade, Mark also continues to campaign against other forms of animal exploitation, including horse racing and greyhound racing. Following the outbreak of Covid-19, Mark also turned his attention to the harm of the wildlife trade to not only animals, but human health.