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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 2 Hansard (11 March) . . Page.. 549 ..

MR SPEAKER (Mr Cornwell) took the chair at 10.30 am and asked members to stand in silence and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of the Australian Capital Territory.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General, Minister for Justice and Community Safety and Minister Assisting the Treasurer) (10.32): Mr Speaker, I move:

That standing order 69 be suspended on 11 March 1999, for the consideration of the Executive business order of the day relating to the principles for the preparation of the budget.

The effect of this motion is simply to ensure that the time limits that operated in this debate on Tuesday continue in the debate today.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

MR SMYTH (Minister for Urban Services) (10.32): Mr Speaker, I present the Stock (Amendment) Bill 1999, together with its explanatory memorandum.

Title read by Clerk.

MR SMYTH: I move:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

Mr Speaker, this Bill will ban the feeding of certain mammalian materials to ruminants. Just in case members are uncertain, I would remind them that a ruminant is an animal with four stomachs and which chews its cud. Sheep, cattle and goats are the obvious examples. There is an unproven but potential link between bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, better known as "mad cow disease", and a variant form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD, which affects humans. As a consequence, the World Health Organisation Special Consultation on BSE/CJD made some recommendations, one being that all countries should ban the use of ruminant tissues in ruminant feed.

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