Page 1231 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 23 March 2010
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The act also provides for the making of animal welfare codes of practice. As members have heard, this bill deals with this last aspect of the act. Although the act currently gives the minister the power to make codes of practice, there is no direct requirement to comply with the code. As has been explained here today, compliance with a code may instead be relied upon by a person as a defence with some exceptions to a prosecution for an animal cruelty offence.
These codes are referred to as approved codes, of which there are currently 22 in operation in the territory. The current approved codes describe best practice only in owning or caring for animals and are drafted accordingly. The approved codes cannot, in their current form, be declared to be mandatory without very significant redrafting. New mandatory codes are currently being developed under a national framework as part of the Australian animal welfare strategy. This strategy has been agreed to by all jurisdictions through the Primary Industries Ministerial Council.
The new codes are being developed under the aegis of Animal Health Australia, which is a partnership involving the Australian government, state and territory governments, major livestock industries and other stakeholders. Individual codes will be developed in consultation with industry representatives, animal welfare groups and officers drawn from various state and territory jurisdictions. The new codes will differ from existing non-mandatory codes in that the compliance requirements, which will be called standards, will be clearly spelled out.
Madam Deputy Speaker, this bill facilitates the adoption, in whole or in part, of the new codes. It provides a mechanism to allow the relevant minister to make mandatory codes of practice related to animal welfare and will move the ACT in line with the nationally consistent animal welfare regulatory regime. However, should it be considered desirable, the ACT could develop its own mandatory codes of practice. On this latter point, I will be guided by the views and recommendations of the territory’s Animal Welfare Advisory Committee.
It is a requirement of the bill for the minister to be satisfied that there has been adequate consultation on a mandatory code before the code is adopted. The government considers it important that Canberrans also have an opportunity to offer their views. The government believes that consultation is an integral part of the development of mandatory codes of practice. The requirement for consultation in the amendment bill builds on the requirement in the act for the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee to participate in the development and recommendation of codes of practice.
For example, the code is currently in development at the national level which deals with the welfare of animals that are being transported. That code will be an amalgam of a number of current species-specific, non-mandatory codes. The new code will use a standard template that sets out clear, compulsory standards with the intention of replacing the best practice language of the current codes with language that prescribes clear minimum compulsory standards.
It is possible that future codes will include compulsory standards together with guidelines. Hence, the bill gives the minister some flexibility in what parts of a code will be declared to be mandatory. The declaration of a mandatory code of practice will
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