Page 2172 - Week 07 - Thursday, 7 August 2014
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livestock and related industries and overall economy. The Matthews report, commissioned by the Australian government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in 2011, identified the effectiveness of swill feeding regulations as one of 11 significant issues in foot and mouth disease prevention and preparedness.
The National Biosecurity Committee, in response to the Matthews report, developed a national foot and mouth disease action plan. The development of nationally harmonised legislation that controls the feeding of pigs forms a key part of that plan. Biosecurity management is work that transcends politics and, as the ACT’s primary industries minister, I participated in the former standing council on primary industries and now participate in the newly formed Agriculture Ministers Forum and I can affirm this important work is continuing, despite any political turnover.
TAMS is currently participating in the national emergency preparedness project, Odysseus, working with other jurisdictions to develop the capability to respond to the risk of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease. The project involves all states and territories and is being coordinated by the commonwealth government. The year-long project will plan and test government and industry preparedness to respond to a foot and mouth disease outbreak by undertaking test exercises in all states and territories.
As an adjunct to the national work, TAMS is working on a number of fronts to improve the territory’s preparedness for emergency disease outbreaks. As part of this work, the TAMS biosecurity emergency plan has been updated to include contemporary thinking about foot and mouth disease emergency management.
Emergency animal disease control activities are further supported by other changes that this bill introduces. The new section 34A provides that when there is an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, the minister can declare that prohibited pig feed includes other material that is problematic in spreading disease in case that disease is in the food chain.
It is important that the territory plans well for such potential events. The locality of the ACT and the management of the traffic that flows through the area mean that Canberra will be pivotal in managing the region’s response to a foot and mouth disease outbreak. Contemporary, harmonised legislation and practice and testing through emergency management exercises are important in ensuring, in the unfortunate event of an outbreak, that we will be well prepared and working collaboratively and in a coordinated response with the rest of Australia.
Now to the second area of amendment contained in this bill that we are debating: the bill changes the word “curfew” to “containment” in the Domestic Animals Act in relation to managing cats in certain areas of Canberra, in particular newer suburbs adjacent to nature reserves. This amendment is designed to better reflect the intention of the legislation in requiring cat owners, in declared areas, to contain their cats to their property. The current arrangement is not, as the current legislation suggests, a curfew. Cats in declared areas are not allowed to roam no matter the time of day, as lizards and birds are still at risk during the day. Rather, the purpose of the legislation is to protect both the health of the cats and also native wildlife by confining cats at all times to either a house or purpose-built cat enclosure.
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