Page 1717 - Week 06 - Thursday, 13 August 1992
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MADAM SPEAKER: The question now is: That this Bill, as amended, be agreed to.
MR KAINE (Leader of the Opposition): Madam Speaker, at this stage, before the Bill is passed by the Assembly, as it inevitably will be, I would like to put on record - - -
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Kaine, under standing order 189, the question is not open to debate.
MR KAINE: I seek leave to make a final statement, Madam Speaker.
Leave granted.
MR KAINE: Thank you, members. Before the Bill is finally voted on, I would like to put on record the opposition of the Liberal Party to this Bill in its entirety. We have attempted to debate it through the course of three days, unsuccessfully. It would appear that the Government has set its mind to putting the Bill in place in its totality, without accepting any argument on any point, whether right or wrong.
Mr Moore: Nonsense! You have got amendments up.
MR KAINE: We proved that the Bill was defective, and in one or two cases the Government was sensible enough either to accept our amendments or, on our advice, to make amendments of their own. I think that is indicative of the fact that there were many things about the Bill that needed correcting - and there still are. There still are things in this Bill that need correcting. There are intended consequences of this Bill that I believe the Government will rue. There are a lot of unintended consequences that the Government has not even yet identified but which will surface when people handling animals in many different ways in the Territory over the next months realise what the impact of this Bill is on them. I do not think the Government understands the ramifications of it, in many cases.
Suffice it to say that the Liberal Party is still not satisfied that this is good legislation. In fact, we believe that it is bad legislation. We do not support it. We support the principle of animal welfare, but there is much in this Bill that we do not agree with. We cannot support it in its present form, amended or not.
MR STEVENSON: Madam Speaker, I seek leave to make a brief statement.
Leave granted.
MR STEVENSON: If we benefit from this debate over the three days, that at least would be a benefit overall. Mr Berry a moment ago said, "We are a consultative government". He meant, "except for the horseracing industry, the pet shop industry, the greyhound industry, the aquarium industry, the rodeo industry and the circus industry". Apart from that, indeed they consulted heavily with those people concerned about animal welfare. If we could learn to use this as a model of how not to go about things, that would be beneficial.
Mr Berry: Horseracing people never come near me, Dennis. I told you that. They are not interested. They are not worried about it. The champion of horseracing in the ACT!
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