Page 883 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 16 June 1992
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Mr De Domenico: Why not?
MR WOOD: Perhaps I cannot convince you.
Mr De Domenico: No. From what you have said so far, you cannot.
MR WOOD: You should go to a circus, maybe - something I have not done - - -
Mr De Domenico: I have been to a circus. Have you been to a circus?
MR WOOD: Not for 25 years. I refuse to go.
Mr De Domenico: Why?
MR WOOD: You should go, perhaps, and see - I have only read about it; I have not observed it - the way they train those bears that roll around on the ball.
Mr De Domenico: There are no bears, for a start.
MR WOOD: I am sorry. You and I have been seeing something different.
Mr De Domenico: There are no bears in the Australian circuses.
MR WOOD: There are far-sighted people in this community who are challenging us to put away our established ideas, ideas that we have accepted without thinking.
Mr Westende's concerns - I repeat that they were in only some areas - were about definitions. We have answered that matter on this side of the house, with some prior notice from some documents that fell from the back of a truck. It is true that "cruelty" is not an easy word to define. But it will be defined through the codes of practice, through the way that inspectors conduct their work and ultimately through courts. Courts will decide what is cruelty, should the matter go to court - and I have no doubt that it will. These definitions, because of the difficulty of that word, that concept, will be developed.
In this debate, as in other debates recently, the Liberals - and I respect their point of view, though I do not agree with it - have made some comment about powers of inspection. I know that they did this in the debates on the planning legislation and some other recent legislation. Yes, there are very strong powers of entry. That element is contained in many Bills. It is a power that is there to be used in the most special circumstances. I have no doubt that if we went through all the Acts in which that power exists we would find that it is very seldom used. It is, nevertheless, an important power and a traditional one in the exercise of duties. So I would ask the Liberals to rethink their position on the power of inspection. Any officer proposing to move under that power would be well aware of the consequences if he were wrong in his actions.
There has been some comment about the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee. Mr Westende thought I should tell him and the Assembly the composition of that committee now. Let us get the legislation up first. That is what we normally do with advisory committees, or any other sorts of committee. I am rather optimistic that this legislation will get through, but I think it is sensible to wait until it is
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