2025 Impact Report
The Australian Alliance for Animals has had another impactful year driving change for animals.
Together with our core member organisations, allies, and supporters, we’ve kept animal welfare firmly on the political agenda and continued to lay the groundwork for a fairer, more independent policy system.
In 2025, we:
Coordinated a strategic national advertising campaign reaching 3.7 million Australians to protect the legislated phase out of live sheep exports.
Secured support for five important animal welfare reforms during the Federal Election, including expanding the Inspector-General of Animal Welfare’s role, establishing an animal welfare trade policy, banning hunting trophy imports, and more.
Led a delegation to Federal Parliament with experts from our core member organisations to meet with 17 MPs, ministers, and department officials.
Grew the Fair Go for Animals campaign to over 60 organisational endorsements and increased supporters by 166%.
Secured a major grant from the Navigation Fund, enabling us to expand our team and strengthen our capacity to progress the Fair Go for Animals reforms in Victoria and New South Wales.
Invested in new government relations technology with our members to enhance our political engagement capacity.
Ran a high-performing advertising campaign about the suffering of chickens farmed for meat, reaching over 150,000 Australians, tripling the supporter base for our Better Chicken Australia campaign.
Grew a deeply engaged movement for animals, with 90% of supporters taking action, and over 80% rating our work highly across communication and impact measures.
Representation highlight: Growing collaboration for animals
This year, we strengthened representation for animals by increasing collaboration across the movement. Support for our Fair Go for Animals (FGFA) reforms continued to grow, with 16 new organisations endorsing the campaign, including IFAW, Effective Altruism Australia, and the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses.
Throughout 2025, we worked closely with our members and partner organisations on joint submissions, advocacy campaigns and open letters on issues such as ending battery cages, live lamb cutting, greyhound racing and opposing the expansion of hunting rights in NSW. Our collective voices ensured a strong, unified voice for animals, particularly in advancing support for an Independent Office of Animal Welfare in NSW.
In September, we led a successful delegation of our members to Parliament House in Canberra, meeting with 17 MPs, ministers and department officials over the course of two days. We built new relationships, fostered existing ones, presented evidenced-based briefings, and sort assurances regarding the timely implementation of the federal government’s election commitments.
Another major milestone was securing a grant from The Navigation Fund, enabling us to expand our work in New South Wales and Victoria. This increased state-level presence will be vital to progressing FGFA reforms and strengthening jurisdictional support for our national reform agenda. We have also invested in new government relations technology with our members to enhance our collective political engagement capacity.
Ambition highlight: Keep the Sheep Here
When the legislation to phase out the live sheep export trade passed parliament last year, we knew the industry would fight to have it reversed. That’s why in the lead up to the Federal election, we partnered with Animals Australia and Stop Live Exports to launch the Keep the Sheep Here campaign – a powerful national advertising campaign to remind the public of the cruelty inherent in this trade and to protect the phase out. Our message was clear: Australians want an end to live sheep exports, and this decision benefits animals and people.
The campaign reached over 3.7 million Australians and received strong, positive engagement from both the public and politicians, helping strengthen the government’s resolve to stand firm in the face of industry pressure and uphold the phase out legislation.
Campaign highlight: 2025 Federal Election
Ahead of the Federal election, we engaged with all political parties seeking commitments on a range of animal welfare reforms. After months of negotiations, we were successful in securing the following commitments from the Australian Labor Party:
Funding the implementation of the Australian Animal Welfare Strategy
Expanding the role of the Inspector-General of Animal Welfare to include export abattoirs
In principle support for expanding tax DGR status to include animal advocacy charities
Creating a federal trade policy that promotes animal welfare in international trade agreements
Expanding the trophy hunting import ban to include the top 20 most hunted exotic wildlife species
We also secured support from a range of other parties, including the Greens, the Animal Justice Party, Fusion, and Sustainable Australia, and the majority of independents in the parliament. This has created a favourable parliamentary environment for progressing animal welfare reforms over the new term of government.
To help educate Australians on where the parties stood, we produced one national and 18 electorate-level policy scorecards and launched a digital advertising campaign that reached approximately 50% of constituents in target electorates and over 1 million Australians in total.
Ambition highlight: Better Chicken Australia campaign
The Better Chicken Australia campaign continued to grow, shining a light on the hidden suffering endured by millions of chickens farmed for meat.
We directly engaged with multiple food businesses and published a guide to support companies in signing up to the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC).
Through an effective social media advertising campaign, we tripled our supporters, establishing a strong core of highly engaged individuals who took part in letter-writing actions asking specific companies to sign up to the BCC.
We also continued to positively engage with RSPCA Australia over the review of the RSPCA Approved Meat Chicken Standard which is expected to be finalised in 2026.
As a member of the Open Wing Alliance, we continued to strengthen our collaboration with international partners on BCC advocacy around the globe.
Event highlight: Open Wing Alliance’s biennial Global Summit
In September, we attended the Open Wing Alliance’s biennial Global Summit in Poland, thanks to a travel grant from The Humane League. We connected with organisations particularly from Europe who are advancing the Better Chicken Commitment. The Summit was valuable in expanding our knowledge and skills for running effective BCC campaigns in Australia.
Reform program
Our first strategic goal is to reform the Australian animal welfare governance system. This includes making the government accountable and increasing transparency, establishing fairer, more independent frameworks, and creating standards that respect animal sentience and reflect contemporary science.
We aim to achieve this through political, media, and public engagement.
12
SUBMISSIONS TO GOVERNMENT REVIEWS & INQUIRIES
39
MEDIA STORIES
36
MEETINGS WITH POLITICIANS & GOVERNMENT
47K
SITE VISITS
16
MEDIA RELEASES & ONLINE ARTICLES
13
PRESENTATIONS & WORKSHOPS
Representation program
Our second strategic goal is to unite the Australian animal welfare sector and elevate its political significance. The Alliance brings together six core member organisations and a combined supporter base of more than 2 million people. We work to ensure the animal welfare sector uses its collective resources efficiently and effectively to maximise its impact, coordinate action on cross-sector and institutional reforms, and secure recognition of animal welfare as a politically significant issue.
11
JOINT LETTERS WITH ALLIES
26
CAMPAIGN WORKING GROUP MEETINGS
18
END LIVE SHEEP EXPORT ALLIANCE MEMBERS
63
FAIR GO FOR ANIMALS ALLIES
Resources produced
Last updated December 2025.