Page 1710 - Week 06 - Thursday, 13 August 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR HUMPHRIES (5.55): Again, Mr Lamont's jealous desire to exclude circuses from this Territory goes to the extent of making sure that the authority does not even have discretion about these matters, or does not have any sort of grey areas to adjudicate on. There are no limits to his venom about circuses, as far as I can tell.
Obviously, this is about a circus that comes to town, that respects the ACT's rule about not having performing prohibited circus animals in it, and that decides not to allow its animals to perform. It puts them to one side, in other words. It does not make them part of the show that comes to town. It is obviously going to retain those animals. It is not going to kill them or leave them on the border. Those animals are going to remain part of the circus, but they are doing what your Government is trying to encourage - getting away from animal-based circuses.
Mr Connolly: So it does not bring them to the ACT.
MR HUMPHRIES: That is what you are saying. This is what we mean when we say that you are trying to stop circuses altogether. A circus that does not use a prohibited circus animal cannot even come to the ACT. The performing elephant or cat with the circus, which is not put on show when it gets to Canberra because that circus respects the laws of the ACT, cannot come here. They have to leave the circus animal outside the Territory. That is stupid. We are banning circuses. They cannot perform as circuses in the ACT.
Mr Connolly: We are banning shackled animals in the ACT.
MR HUMPHRIES: No, you are not banning shackled animals in the ACT because you have admitted, by passing this provision, that you cannot make shackled animals part of the provision under clause 7, which deals with cruelty to animals. You know that that is not covered by the provision in the Bill, so you are relying on some other provision which bans circuses. It does not make sense. Okay, you do not want circuses. You have made that point very clearly.
Mr Connolly: We do not want the animals.
MR HUMPHRIES: All right, you do not want the animals in the circus. You want to exclude prohibited circus animals from performing in the ACT. Fine.
Mr Connolly: From being in the ACT.
MR HUMPHRIES: No, that is not what the Bill says. You are simply going to make circuses who still want to come here - goodness knows why they would, frankly - make arrangements to have the animals left on the border. It does not achieve a single thing, except to keep circuses away from the people of the ACT. We know what this hidden agenda is, to adopt Mr Berry's words. The hidden agenda here is to make sure that circuses do not get the chance to come to the ACT to lobby the people of the ACT about this circus ban.
Mr Lamont: Nonsense!
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .