Page 5973 - Week 18 - Wednesday, 11 December 1991
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Mr Berry: Get a dog. What you need is a dog - to chase the cats.
MR MOORE: Mr Berry implies, by way of interjection, that one of the difficulties with good dog control is that we will not have the dogs around to chase the cats away. That is possible. I suppose that, after we have rebuilt our fences, we will be able to get a dog and get it to protect the sandpit. That remains a possibility. I welcome this Bill as part of what needs to be achieved.
MR STEFANIAK (6.33): Just briefly, I indicate that the Liberal Party supports this dog control Bill. There are a lot of people out in the community who are very concerned about the matter, and we will not be supporting Mr Jensen's amendments.
MR WOOD (Minister for Education and the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (6.33), in reply: Mr Speaker, Mr Jensen said that he would move two minor amendments. In fact, one of those amendments is not a minor amendment. It is a very serious amendment which would bring about a substantial change to the thrust of the Bill. I understand his intentions, but his amendments would cause significant damage to this legislation. I will reserve further comment about that until the detail stage, should Mr Jensen proceed with that amendment. I think he has got the message about its fate by this time.
He asked about the keepers licence. We have not yet determined the cost of that licence. There is some work to be done yet on the cost of administration. It will be based on cost recovery, and the additions and divisions have not yet been done. But he should bear in mind that keepers who meet the fairly generous qualifications get a significant discount for their animals, and I think they are well looked after in that respect. I have had conversations about the Belconnen Dog Obedience Club and the difficulties that its members have concerning their site at Mitchell, and I will be taking that matter through with the department.
Mr Jensen, like Mr Moore, wants to know about the companion animal review. The matters that you would encompass in that regard are significantly to be dealt with in the animal welfare legislation. We have toiled mightily to get that legislation up and running in this Assembly, but we have not been able to meet the deadlines. It is a complex piece of legislation. We will be getting out a piece of model legislation as soon as we can.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
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