VICTORIAN farmers could be subjected to national welfare laws drawn up by animal lobby groups if State Parliament passes a new livestock management Bill.
Liberal MP Denis Napthine warned the Bill would enable 22 new national standards to automatically become law in Victoria.
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Dr Napthine said the Bill would be drawn up by bureaucrats and could become law without any opportunity for scrutiny in Parliament.
He said the Bill handed power directly to unelected persons and "went against all the tenets of the Westminster system".
The Bill has been passed by the Lower House and is due to go to the Upper House next week.
Last week, the Government voted down an amendment to give the Victorian Parliament the opportunity to review any new national standards, before they became law.
Dr Napthine said there was no guarantee farming bodies would be involved in the new legislation, and groups such as the RSPCA or People for Ethical Treatment of Animals could be directly involved in forming legislation.
Nationals MP Bill Sykes said groups such as PETA had the ability to unreasonably influence the new standards and he urged the Government to take a cautious approach.
Dr Sykes said he supported continuing improvement of animal welfare standards but was concerned about the cost of compliance.
Speaking in Parliament last week, Dr Sykes said there "was always the risk these standards could be hijacked by zealots".
Minister for Agriculture Joe Helper said the proposed standards took into account existing codes of practice under cruelty legislation and would take a national approach.
"PETA doesn't have any say in the standards development or approval process, but Australian livestock industry leaders do," he said.
