Page 667 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 28 March 2006
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a refund. I would hate to see the cost that would involve in terms of the system. It would be absolutely ludicrous.
This is a bill that does not affect anyone. People have, in good faith, quite properly and quite happily, because they get a loving companion animal for life, paid these fees. All this bill does is validate an administrative glitch. Accordingly, I join with my colleague Mr Pratt and Dr Foskey in supporting this legislation. It rectifies a significant loophole in the current act in relation to the collection of fees.
MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella—Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services, Minister for Urban Services and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (11.58), in reply: I do two things: I thank members for their support of this. It closes an administrative loophole. At the end of the day, people paid money for some goods and received the goods. It was not as though somebody had paid money, got nothing and therefore we needed to go back and give people their money back. They have got the animal that they paid for. So this is really an administrative-fixing problem.
The second thing I would say is in respect of Dr Foskey’s concerns about the desexing of dogs and all of those issues.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Hargreaves, come back to the subject matter of the bill.
MR HARGREAVES: I am indeed doing that, Mr Speaker. The Domestic Animals (Validation of Fees) Bill is part of our approach to domestic animals, but this bill could not wait for the review of the Domestic Animals Act. For the benefit of Dr Foskey, she can take the issues that she has raised here and convey them through Domestic Animal Services, and those views will be taken into account in the review of the Domestic Animals Act, which will be brought to this Assembly later in the year.
As Mr Stefaniak succinctly said, this is an administrative matter. This is really all about money; it is not about the animals. It is about money; it is about making sure that the transaction that applied to somebody paying money and receiving an animal is legitimate. I thank members for their support.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.
Bill agreed to.
Sitting suspended from 12.00 to 2.30 pm.
Questions without notice
Policing—report on hit-and-run incident
MR STEFANIAK: My question is directed to the minister for police. Minister, on the 23rd of August last year your comments about the Clea Rose hit-and-run quoted in the Canberra Times stated that you had announced that “the full report of the police
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