The Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) is calling on the next Victorian State Government to support three key areas important to the veterinary profession: essential veterinary services for the public good are resourced to become sustainable, mental health of the veterinary profession is protected, and animal care and protection legislation is modernised.
The AVA is asking the Victorian Government to commit to planning for and allocating adequate funds to veterinary services in areas of public need, such as animal welfare, biosecurity, animal population control, care of wildlife and emergency care of animals in natural disasters.
Private veterinarians service animal health and welfare across Victoria, and through their daily work generate a multitude of public benefits at their own cost, such as caring for un-owned sick and injured animals including wildlife, subsidised desexing and surveillance for the early detection emergency animal diseases. This expectation is not sustainable and has compounded issues within the profession while contributing to the skills shortage being experienced by the veterinary profession.
"It is no surprise that veterinarians, and now veterinary nurses, are included as occupations that are assessed as being in shortage in the 2022 Skills Priority List report" said AVA Victorian Division President Dr Hugh Millar. "People are leaving the veterinary profession because it's not sustainable, that is, they feel they can't make a valuable contribution and at the same time safeguard their own health and welfare. Day to day this looks like long hours, lack of flexibility, high educational debt that is difficult to pay back with current low wages" he said.
One of the issues the veterinary profession is facing is poor mental health from, in part, providing the high-quality services needed, with inadequate resources. "The research tells us that vets have a higher rate of mental health issues compared to the general public, and we are calling on the Victorian government to provide mental health support directly to the veterinary profession," said Dr Millar.
The AVA supports reform of the State's animal welfare legislation to responsibly modernise aspects of the existing Act and is calling for the alignment of animal welfare and veterinary legislation so that only qualifications, skills and competencies determine who may perform 'veterinary competencies'. Only this will make sure that all animals and the public are protected and safe from animal welfare harms and zoonotic disease.
AVA's Victorian election platform can be read here.
