Australia 2023 – National poultry standards endorsement with battery cage phase-out
Law & Regulation
Partially Implemented
July 13, 2023
Summary
On 13 July 2023, Australia’s Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting (AMM) endorsed updated Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines for Poultry, including a framework specifying that conventional (barren) battery cages for layer hens are to be phased out between 2032 and 2036, with 2036 as the latest permitted end date. The Standards also specify that new cages installed from 2023 onwards must include nest areas, perches or platforms, and scratch areas — prohibiting the installation of new barren battery cage systems. The Standards are not self-executing legislation; they require adoption into each Australian state and territory’s animal welfare Acts or subordinate regulations before they create binding obligations on producers.
Background Context
Before the 2023 endorsement, Australia’s commercial egg production operated under the Model Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals: Domestic Poultry, which permitted conventional battery cages across most jurisdictions, with the Australian Capital Territory as the primary exception. The development of the updated poultry Standards and Guidelines involved a review process of approximately seven to eight years, including multiple draft versions, public consultations, and a Decision Regulation Impact Statement that examined options including a later phase-out date of 2046. The Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting decision followed a sustained campaign by organisations including RSPCA Australia, the Australian Alliance for Animals, and FOUR PAWS Australia for a legislated end to battery cage use. Industry bodies including Egg Farmers Australia participated in consultations and raised concerns about transition timelines and potential market impacts.
System Impact
Direction
Neutral / Administrative
Type
Modifies Conditions
Significance
Low
The AMM endorsed the Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines for Poultry on 13 July 2023, establishing a nationally agreed policy framework for the phase-out of conventional battery cages and new cage design requirements. The Standards are not self-executing: they have no binding effect until transposed into state and territory legislation. As of April 2026, the Australian Capital Territory had existing legislative restrictions on conventional cages predating the 2023 endorsement, and Western Australia enacted the Animal Welfare (Poultry) Regulations 2024 in December 2024 — documented in a separate Development record. Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory had agreed in principle to the national Standards but had not enacted equivalent binding regulations as of early 2026. The number of hens in battery cage systems nationally is not documented as having changed as a result of this endorsement.
Anticipated Effects
If adopted into binding regulation by all Australian states and territories as specified, the use of conventional (barren) battery cages for layer hens would cease nationally no later than 2036.
If jurisdictions enact the Standards’ new cage design requirements, new cage installations in those jurisdictions would be required to include nest areas, perches or platforms, and scratch areas from the date those regulations take effect.
If fully implemented nationally, the phase-out would require capital restructuring across a substantial share of the commercial egg sector, though the pace and distribution of that restructuring would depend on jurisdiction-specific implementation timelines and market conditions.
Whether full national implementation would reduce the number of hens bred into Australian exploitation systems, or primarily shift housing configurations within a continuing system, is not established in available sources and would depend on market response and production decisions by individual operators.
Effects on egg supply composition, market pricing, and producer transition costs are not defined in the Standards themselves and remain contingent on how and when individual jurisdictions legislate.
Significance Rationale
Assigned Neutral / Administrative (impact direction) because the Standards alter the conditions under which cage egg production must operate but the system continues at comparable scale — the number of hens in battery cages is not reduced at the point of endorsement.
Assigned Modifies Conditions (impact type) because the instrument changes the terms under which cage egg production must operate — new cage design requirements and a phase-out timeline — without removing the legal basis for egg production or materially contracting the system.
Assigned Low significance because the Standards are not self-executing and as of April 2026 have been transposed into binding regulation in only two jurisdictions (ACT and Western Australia); the majority of Australian states, which hold the majority of the national caged layer flock, have not enacted implementing legislation. Documented system effect at the national level is therefore minimal at the point of this record.
Within The System
Key Actors
The Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting (AMM), comprising federal, state, and territory agriculture ministers, endorsed the Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines for Poultry on 13 July 2023. Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt announced the decision. The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) coordinated the national Standards process and the associated Decision Regulation Impact Statement. Egg Farmers Australia, represented by chief executive Melinda Hashimoto, publicly responded to the decision, raising concerns about the absence of a single uniform national phase-out date and potential market impacts. RSPCA Australia, the Australian Alliance for Animals, and FOUR PAWS Australia participated in the Standards development process and publicly documented the outcome. State and territory agriculture departments are responsible for transposing the Standards into binding local regulations.
Editorial Correction Notice
Current status: As of April 2026, the Standards have been transposed into binding regulation only in the Australian Capital Territory (prior legislation) and Western Australia (Animal Welfare (Poultry) Regulations 2024). Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory have agreed in principle but have not enacted equivalent binding regulations. Current status will require updating as further jurisdictions legislate.
Scale & Prevalence: The figures of over 5 million layer hens in battery cages annually and approximately 40% of Australia’s egg supply produced in battery cage systems are drawn from advocacy organisation publications (FOUR PAWS Australia, Australian Alliance for Animals) and have not been verified against official government statistics or DAFF/ABARES data. These figures should be verified against ABARES or ABS agricultural census data before this record moves to Review.
Scale & Prevalence: The figure of up to approximately 55 million additional hens cycling through battery cages before the 2036 deadline is an advocacy organisation projection based on production cycle and infrastructure lifespan assumptions. It is not an official government figure and should be treated as a sectoral estimate.
Key Actors: Specific names and portfolio titles of all state and territory agriculture ministers present at the 13 July 2023 Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting are not documented in the research output. The AMM communiqué or DAFF records would provide the full list of attending ministers.
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