Page 1669 - Week 06 - Thursday, 13 August 1992
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Mr Connolly: But amendments are a good thing. It shows that debate is going on.
MR STEVENSON: It depends on how debate is going on. If you say that the code of practice is going to solve the problems of the different industries, and that is, in effect, what is being said, and if you say, "We are not going to introduce the laws until we have sorted out all the regulations or the codes of practice", you are asking this parliament to pass the legislation and later on you will work out what the real laws will be. You are saying, in effect, "There may be problems in the Bill, but you can pass it. We will not gazette it".
Mr Wood: No, not at all. You are saying that.
MR STEVENSON: Mr Wood says that I am saying that, and indeed I am saying that; but that is what is being said. The suggestion is that the matter will not be gazetted until there is time to deal with what have got to be problems. You cannot say that you are going to hold over the gazettal if you are not acknowledging that there are major problems.
The regulations and codes of practice are different things. The codes of practice are huge areas of control and responsibility for entire industries. We are, in effect, if we pass this Bill today, putting into the hands of the Executive the power to make much of the law in this area. To suggest that we can disallow the regulations later on is not the way it should be. The laws should be made in this parliament; the laws should be made by these members. It should not be an Executive matter.
What we are saying is that the horseracing industry at the moment would be largely prohibited by clause 7, and certainly clause 8. But the code of practice, I am certain, will protect the horseracing industry from those specific offences.
Mr Lamont: Minister, did you hear that?
Mr Wood: No; I was not listening.
Mr Lamont: He just acknowledged that there are no problems for the horseracing industry.
MR STEVENSON: Mr Lamont said that I have acknowledged that there is no problem for the horseracing industry. What I have said again and again is that the horseracing industry will be banned in the ACT, under their standard practices, if this legislation goes through without any further laws or regulations or codes of practice.
The law is simple. We are asked to pass this Bill when we are saying that we do not know what the law will be. I am not 100 per cent sure what Mr Lamont is trying to explain there - whether he is saying that it will be okay for the horseracing industry to use whips and cause horses pain or it will not be okay to use whips and cause horses pain. I do not know which point he is making. Nevertheless, the point I make is valid. I do not know, if this legislation is passed today, what effect it will have on the horseracing industry, what effect it will have on the greyhound industry, the zoo industry, the pet industry, the trotting industry, the aquarium industry, and a number of others. Members opposite may believe that they know. They may say, "Listen, we have it all in hand. We are not
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