Page 1644 - Week 06 - Thursday, 13 August 1992
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a defence to a charge arising out of an offence recorded in this legislation by referring to subordinate legislation made by a Minister under the Act. In other words, the offence a person gets charged with is recorded in the legislation itself made by the Assembly, but the defence that they use, saying, "No, my conduct is exempt under reasonable practice as per the code of practice", is made by subordinate legislation.
This legislation is in fact, on its face, very harsh. It is mitigated by the effect of codes of practice. The fact of life is, Madam Speaker, that the codes of practice do not yet exist. The codes of practice probably are no more than broad concepts as outlined in the 20 categories referred to in clause 21 of the legislation. The Minister himself has conceded that there are many provisions of this Bill which, by themselves, would cause offences but which will in due course be mitigated, modified and reduced in severity by the codes of practice. We are creating an extremely stringent arrangement for animal welfare if we pass this legislation and do not put the codes of practice in place straightaway to mitigate the effect of that.
Mr Wood: You do not understand.
MR HUMPHRIES: The Minister says that it is all right. But when are all the codes of practice going to be available? Before this legislation is gazetted? The Minister does not answer that question. I hope he does answer that question. If this comes into force before the codes of practice are available, we are making an extremely stiff rod for many people's backs. The racing industry's concerns have already been expressed. You have said, "Do not worry; the codes of practice will take care of that". But how long after this legislation comes into force will the codes of practice be available?
Mr Kaine: One year?
MR HUMPHRIES: One year? We had a 12-page Bill, the Food Bill, based on existing legislation, which took two years to come before the Assembly.
Mr Wood: There is nothing new in this, nothing new at all.
MR HUMPHRIES: Minister, I submit to you that there is a very real, important and urgent point here. Interject. When are the codes of practice going to be available?
Mr Wood: I will stand up with your leave and I will respond to it.
MR HUMPHRIES: All right. If you can assure me that they are going to be available by the time this Act is gazetted, I will be happy. I will sit down and I will be mollified. There will not be any problem. But if they are not available at the point when this legislation comes into force - every one of them - then we are creating an extremely unfair rule for those people who have to abide by that law.
I want to raise quickly two points that were raised earlier in debate, I think by Mr Moore. Why did we not raise these sorts of concerns about the Bill during the in-principle stage of the legislation? The answer is very simple and it was a point we raised constantly during the last sitting week of the last Assembly. There was too much legislation being brought forward too quickly to be able to do that.
Mr Connolly: You were previously complaining that there was not enough.
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