Page 1228 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 23 March 2010
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Mr Hanson: That’s an award you’ve taken out many years in a row, Mr Hargreaves—many years in a row.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Do not provoke the opposition, Mr Hargreaves.
MR HARGEAVES: It has tickled him up a little bit, hasn’t it? I wish fishing was this easy, Madam Deputy Speaker; it would be great.
Mrs Dunne: Get a new line, John.
MR HARGEAVES: “Get a new line,” she says. Oh, dear.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Can we get back to the debate, Mr Hargreaves.
MR HARGEAVES: I am mortified, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am absolutely shattered by the rapier-like wit just demonstrated by Mrs Dunne; it is rapier like. Like a rusty barbed-wire fence—that is what it is really like.
A number of Australian jurisdictions, including the ACT, do not currently have a legislative framework to enable the adoption of mandatory codes of practice. At present the Animal Welfare Act allows the minister to declare “approved” codes of practice, but they are “best practice” guides. If a person is charged with animal cruelty under the act, that person can then use their compliance with a code of practice as a defence. The relevant minister can also make regulations dealing with individual animal welfare issues and that power will continue alongside the arrangements that this bill introduces.
This bill will amend the Animal Welfare Act 1992 to include a new power for the minister to make mandatory codes of practice. The bill also introduces offence provisions to give teeth to the mandatory codes. Other minor changes to the act will be made to allow for consistency. Under new section 23, the minister will have the authority to make part or all of a code of practice mandatory and enforceable. Formal acceptance of a code will still be made by a disallowable instrument, meaning this Assembly will have some oversight over the process. Before the minister can declare a code to be mandatory, the minister must be satisfied that adequate consultation has occurred.
The Animal Welfare Advisory Committee will also advise the government on the local adoption of nationally approved codes, under the AAWS project. I understand the advisory committee is well across the national code-making arrangements. I understand that the ACT’s Animal Welfare Advisory Committee is in favour of mandatory codes of practice and stands ready to convert a number of existing voluntary codes into the necessary standard and guideline format for adoption as a mandatory code. The minister will also continue to be able to make non-mandatory or “approved” codes of practice, as the minister can do at present.
Further, the minister will continue to be able to deal with animal welfare issues through the making of regulations under the act, although this bill removes an anomaly from the current regulation-making power in the act. The bill will remove
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