Page 5222 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 29 November 2017
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the victim of dog attacks both recently and in the past. We think that the proposals we have put forward today considerably strengthen our ability to manage dangerous dogs but also, importantly, build on the other initiatives that the government has taken this year, in particular regarding the animal welfare management strategy and broader education and awareness raising in our community.
The principles that underpin the further amendments that the government is proposing are to support a fundamental public safety test in our legislation to make it very clear that in our legislation the fundamental test is public safety, that we have the right legislation to deal with dangerous dogs not only when they have attacked but before they have attacked and, indeed, to introduce and strengthen the ability for domestic animal services in particular to act on a number of different categories, including menacing dogs, aggressive dogs and harassing dogs.
Also, importantly, the amendments provide the authority to manage dogs and destroy dogs even before they have attacked. These are very powerful provisions in the legislation, underpinned by the principle of ensuring public safety. Our society is changing and community expectation about what is acceptable civic conduct in our community is evolving rapidly. A key example is community attitudes to responsible pet ownership. People are less tolerant of irresponsibly managed dogs and increasingly unwilling to put up with the impacts to their safety and amenity. We must respond to this change. The ACT government supports stronger laws to protect the public from dangerous dogs and supports the measures put forward in the opposition’s bill, but we need to go even further in strengthening our laws.
As a territory, we need to be tougher on irresponsible dog owners and have a clear and strong compliance and enforcement framework that facilitates domestic animal services working with the community to achieve good public safety and animal welfare outcomes. We also need to take a holistic approach to dealing not only with dogs that are declared dangerous but also with dogs that exhibit early warning signs of dangerous behaviour. This is why the government is proposing a comprehensive suite of additional amendments. We want to give the community confidence that the ACT is taking strong action in how we deal with inappropriate behaviours of dogs and their owners.
The ACT government’s commitment to action is not limited to these significant legislation changes. I recently announced additional resources for domestic animal services to further enable them to effectively administer and implement the law. This strengthening of capacity will enable domestic animal services to take a more proactive approach, ensuring that all dog owners behave in a responsible way and are held accountable for a failure to manage their dog appropriately.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that there may be as many domestic animals as people in Australia. Dogs are the most popular choice of pet for Canberrans, with an estimated 60,000 dogs residing in the territory. Canberra’s significant network of open space and community facilities means that Canberra is a great place to keep a dog.
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