Page 1698 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 9 May 2018
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Fitzharris failed Canberrans by not taking decisive action on uncontrolled and dangerous dogs and she continues to fail Canberrans on this issue.
The motion today calls on the government pretty modestly to provide the information on something they said they would do. I do not expect there to be any objection to the motion today. But I will come back to that later. First, let me recap why we on this side of the chamber took up the case of dangerous and uncontrolled dogs.
The government’s own dog attack figures are telling: 85 dog attack investigations in 2012-13, 93 dog attack investigations in 2013-14, 245 dog attack investigations in 2014-15 and 360 dog attack investigations in 2015-16—an increase over three years of about 400 percent.
In the face of this dramatic escalation of the dangerous dog situation in Canberra, early last year Mr Doszpot and the Canberra Liberals took action. After a period of genuine public consultation Mr Doszpot, in March last year in the Assembly, said:
From figures given to me by the government, a person presents to hospital emergency departments in Canberra because of dog attack every three days and this rate is increasing and it is unacceptable.
Later in the year the government confirmed what Mr Doszpot had said. The problem increased to 389 attack investigations in 2016-17 and the issuing of 14 dangerous dog licences—an increase of over 4½ times or 450 per cent in only four years in dog attack investigations. Mr Doszpot went on to warn in the Assembly:
The government has obviously lost control on this issue and something needs to be done before more innocent pets are injured or killed or a human tragedy occurs from dog attack.
These words have come back to haunt us. Since we took on this issue of uncontrolled and dangerous dogs, dozens of innocent pets have been savaged, mauled and killed by roaming dogs. Sometimes the attacks occur in the owner’s own home. The animal suffering, let alone the human suffering, is immense. Heartbreakingly, within months of Steve’s warning, a human tragedy did occur in Canberra from a dog attack.
In a motion in the Assembly on 29 March last year Mr Doszpot called on the government to:
(1) allocate more resources to investigate serious attacks by dogs …
In answer to that call Minister Fitzharris changed the motion to read “consider allocating more resources”. The minister also said:
I am pleased to advise that in the past 12 months there has been a renewed focus of Domestic Animal Services staff on customer service and communication, especially the importance of keeping victims of dog attacks informed on the progress and outcomes of investigations.
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