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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (28 November) . . Page.. 3273 ..
Clause 14.
MS TUCKER (12.13): I move amendment No 1 circulated in my name:
No 1-
Page 5, line 14, subclause (2), omit the subclause, substitute the following subclause:
"(2) Paragraph (1) (a) does not apply if-
(a) the dog is under 56 days old; or
(b) the dog has been kept by the person for less than 28 days; or
(c) the person has been resident in the Territory for less than 28 days.
(3) Paragraph (1) (b) does not apply if the registered keeper is unable to care for the dog and the person is caring for the dog on a temporary basis.".
Under this clause a dog has to be registered if it is over eight weeks old or has been kept by a person for more than 28 days. I can accept that people should be obliged to register their dogs as soon as practicable but I am concerned that 28 days or four weeks is a relatively short time. This period might be okay if you had just bought a dog and need to register it. But the situation has been brought to my attention where the 28-day period may not be appropriate. If someone went on holidays or was ill and gave their dog to a friend to look after on a temporary basis for a period that went for more than 28 days then the person caring for the dog would, according to this clause, have to register the dog in their name after 28 days and then transfer the registration back to the real owner when that person was again able to look after the dog. Transfer of registration in this case seems quite cumbersome and likely to be ineffective. Taking up Mr Rugendyke's point, perhaps pensioners or elderly people might be particularly affected by that.
I am therefore putting up this amendment which adds a new subsection (3) to allow a person to care for a dog for longer than 28 days without transferring the registration from the owner of the dog if the caring is on a temporary basis.
MR SMYTH (Minister for Urban Services) (12.14): The government will agree to the amendment. In fact, if it does not get up we have an amendment of our own that has a similar effect.
MR CORBELL (12.14): The Labor Party will be supporting Ms Tucker's amendment. She has highlighted a small but possible consequence of the government's current provisions in the bill. We believe it is appropriate to allow for that set of circumstances to be appropriately addressed in order that there not be an undue imposition on the people who would otherwise be affected.
Amendment agreed to.
Clause 14, as amended, agreed to.
Clauses 15 to 20, by leave, taken together and agreed to.
Clause 21.
MR SMYTH (Minister for Urban Services) (12.15): I move amendment No 6 circulated in my name:
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