Andy Meddick’s desire to effect change through legislation – and his path to the upper house – was ignited through a confronting “lightbulb moment” in 2013.
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Recuperating from a serious injury, the construction worker was stationed in a yard while on light duties behind a pig slaughterhouse in Laverton.
“All I could hear for nearly two weeks was the screams of those animals,” he said.
“Fear and pain – it was just horrendous. And on that last day I decided I couldn't be a part of that system and that I had to do something to stop it.”
Meddick, 54, who was born in Gosford, NSW, but has been living in Torquay for the last 29 years, began handing out how-to-vote cards for the Animal Justice Party in the lead up to the 2013 federal election with his wife, April.
Following the result, he wanted to do more, so he formed the regional group of AJP and held its first meeting in Torquay. Only six people turned up, but Meddick went on to contest the federal seat of Corangamite in 2016 and after Saturday’s result he may be one of two AJP members in Victoria’s upper house.
And while the AJP received the fourth-highest number of votes overall, Meddick polled less than three per cent of the primary vote in Western Victoria, prompting Monash University’s Nick Economou to call for change in the upper house voting system.
“You can justify the Greens winning a seat, even the Shooters and even Hinch, but the Animal Justice Party with 2.7 per cent of the vote in one of the state largest agricultural areas...it's just not right,” Dr Economou said.
Meddick himself is circumspect about the group voting ticket, conceding it allows for “anomalies”.
“It’s the system we have and so we’ll work with it,” Meddick said.
“But the upper house is supposed to be a house of review to make sure any legislation passes a test of morality and legality and is something the general public actually wants. And that's why we've seen a rise in minor parties, like ourselves, gaining seats – the public recognises that to give a rubber stamp to a major party is a dangerous thing.”
If elected, Meddick wants to strengthen puppy farm legislation and ban the use of 1080 poison, battery farming, and duck shooting.
But Meddick, who lists his major political heroes as Gough Whitlam and Julia Gillard, said he will continue to work as a dogman for Caelli Constructions in Melbourne until the election results are finalised.
"You work hard and you hope for it, but to be on the brink of it is a strange feeling. It's exciting, but at the same time I can't fully commit to that feeling because I'm not there yet,” he said.
The deadline for results is December 14.
