Page 877 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 16 June 1992
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Mr Westende also addressed the question of Parkwood Eggs. Despite the rhetoric of the Liberal Party in the last 48 hours, this Bill does not outlaw the battery hen system, nor does it prescribe that hens for egg production be free-ranging. The Bill will require battery hens to be kept in a way that protects their welfare. The battery farm system - - -
Mr De Domenico: Ha, ha, ha!
MR LAMONT: If you wish to listen, Mr De Domenico, for once, this evening you might learn something.
Mr De Domenico: I will listen. Are you going to set up a group of counsellors? He is going to train them to go and have a look and see whether the hens are all right.
MR LAMONT: One would certainly hope that you would learn something. The battery farm system of egg production will be dealt with by a code of practice. In developing codes, consultation with relevant interested parties will be undertaken. Codes that are already developed at a national level will be reviewed by the ACT and may well be adopted without modification. A national code of practice for the keeping of battery hens is being developed by an Animal Health Sub-Committee on Animal Welfare which reports to the Council of Agriculture Ministers. So it is not just here in the ACT that this matter is being actively considered.
There has been a question raised in a document about the Mugga Lane Zoo and the keeping of koalas. Neither Mugga Lane Zoo nor the National Aquarium has a permit to keep koalas. The keeping of koalas or any other native animal is regulated by the Nature Conservation Act of 1980. The issue of permits under the Act is governed by concerns for the health of the animals and the ability of individual operators to care for them.
A question about pet shops and other issues - the red herrings, as I call them, or the budgies in the cage - was raised. In the development of the policy statement on which this Bill is based, pet shop owners representing commercial interest in the trade and the transport of companion animals were involved in this working group that produced this policy statement. The confinement provisions simply state that an animal is not to be confined in a way that causes injury or pain, and that confined animals are to be adequately exercised. This is consistent with the policy statement. It is anticipated that a code of practice will be developed relating to pet shops and that extensive consultation will be undertaken with relevant organisations and individuals.
The question of consultation is one that was repeated throughout all of Mr Westende's address. This Bill is based, as I have said, on the animal welfare policy statement. If you had read this policy statement, Mr Westende and Mr De Domenico, you would have understood exactly who was consulted, and that the consultation period, in total, has now exceeded five years. No other piece of legislation that I am aware of, that has come before this Assembly in the time that I have been an MLA, has had such an extensive consultation period associated with it - and, I might add, the endorsement of both the Alliance Government and the previous Labor Government as a policy statement. These organisations included the Australian Veterinary Association, the RSPCA, the
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