Page 1757 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2011
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funding for this sector does not decrease in real terms. It is not a very difficult decision to make, Mr Barr. I am very sorry to hear that you are not strong enough in your internal ability to ensure that your party will carry that motion.
I also have to express a lot of disappointment that the Treasurer, handing down the budget yesterday in her 40-minute speech, and quite a detailed speech regarding education, made not one mention of the non-government education sector at all. I guess that goes to underline the reason for our calling on the government and the Greens to support our motion to raise this issue quite aptly during Catholic Schools Week.
I am very disappointed, but I guess I should say that none of us are surprised at the way in which the Greens and Labor have combined to show their true colours with regard to the non-government sector and, in this case, the Catholic education sector in particular. Obviously we have not supported Mr Barr’s amendment on this.
Motion, as amended, agreed to.
Animal Welfare Legislation Amendment Bill 2011
Debate resumed from 6 April 2011, on motion by Ms Le Couteur:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Minister for Transport, Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Land and Property Services, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and Minister for the Arts and Heritage) (11.09): The government certainly agrees that there is benefit in reviewing the current arrangements for the breeding and the sale of dogs and cats within the ACT. However, as I think everybody in this place knows, the government commenced work in this area with a commitment to the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee to undertake a full consultation—long before the Greens flagged that they would leap ahead to legislate on this issue.
I asked the members of the AWAC, a quorum of key community stakeholders in this area, to do work on the issue of mandatory codes of practice. I made that request of them in 2010 and the AWAC are currently pursuing that investigation, I understand, completing a draft mandatory enforceable code of practice which will govern the sale of animals in the ACT.
Ms Le Couteur is aware that I made that undertaking to the committee. Ms Le Couteur is aware that the committee are working through a consultative process on developing that draft of an enforceable code of practice and she is aware that they propose to have that paper ready for release, I believe, in the next month or two. Separately, Ms Mary Porter is developing a discussion paper on complementary measures to encourage responsible pet ownership. She is liaising with AWAC and with other stakeholders in the process.
Ms Le Couteur and her colleagues today, the Greens, would say that they have consulted on this issue and that they have consulted enough. The Greens are
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