Andy Meddick (born 5 April 1964) is a former Australian politician. He was an

Animal Justice Party The Animal Justice Party (AJP) is a political party in Australia founded in 2009 by Steve Garlick. The party was registered by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) on 3 May 2011. The party is also registered in New South Wales, Queenslan ...

member of the

Victorian Legislative Council The Victorian Legislative Council is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria, Australia, the lower house being the Victorian Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit at Parliament House, Melbourne, Parliament ...

from 2018 to 2022, representing

Western Victoria Region Western Victoria Region is one of the eight electoral regions of Victoria, Australia, which elects five members to the Victorian Legislative Council (also referred to as the upper house) by proportional representation. The region was created in ...

, and was the first politician elected in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

on an animal protection platform.

Career

Meddick previously worked in construction and was motivated to start his political career when he heard the screams of animals while he worked next to a Laverton pig slaughterhouse in 2013. Meddick began handing out

how-to-vote card In Australia, how-to-vote cards (HTV) are small leaflets that are handed out by party supporters during elections. Voting in the Australian lower house uses a preferential voting system. Voters must rank every candidate on the ballot in order f ...

s for the Animal Justice Party before the 2013 federal election and formed the regional group of the AJP. He contested the federal seat of Corangamite in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Political views

Meddick has been a strong critic of duck hunting in

.Victoria's duck hunt season reduced: Weekly Times Now article
/ref> He stated in his maiden speech in 2019 that he wants to work with farmers: "to help them adapt to the changes that our climate emergency will force us all to make".Animal Justice MP Andy Meddick wants to 'work with farmers': Weekly Times Now article
/ref> He also supported other members of the Victorian parliament crossbench in calling for a trial for

pill testing Drug checking or pill testing is a way to reduce the harm from drug consumption by allowing users to find out the content and purity of substances that they intend to consume. This enables users to make safer choices: to avoid more dangerous subst ...

.Crossbench to use numbers to pressure Victorian Government to introduce pill testing: ABC article
/ref> Meddick has opposed the culling of kangaroos, instead demanding in parliament that pest populations be 'relocated.' According to ''The Age'', between November 2018 and November 2021, Meddick voted with the Andrews Government's position 83.2% of the time, the most of any Legislative Council crossbencher.

Personal life

Meddick is the father of two

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meddick, Andy 1964 births Living people 21st-century Australian politicians Animal Justice Party politicians Members of the Victorian Legislative Council People from Gosford Animal Justice Party members of the Parliament of Victoria