Page 3567 - Week 09 - Thursday, 23 August 2018
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Leave granted.
MS FITZHARRIS: I move amendment No 1 circulated in my name [see schedule 1 at page 3582].
I table a supplementary explanatory statement to the government amendments. I present to the Assembly a range of government amendments to the Veterinary Practice Bill 2018. I will speak to them as a block at this point. As I have said, the amendments address comments received from the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety, performing its legislative scrutiny role, in scrutiny report 18, as well as arising from further consultation with opposition member Mrs Dunne and the Australian Veterinary Association.
In scrutiny report 18, the scrutiny committee provided comments on clause 146(3) of the bill, which would enable regulations to prescribe offences for contraventions of a regulation and prescribe maximum penalties of not more than 30 penalty units. The scrutiny committee was concerned that there was no justification provided for why offences, even where subject to maximum penalties of only 30 penalty units, can be created through regulations rather than provided for in the act itself.
Transport Canberra and City Services notes that the final act will not require offences to be established in regulations. The amendment I am presenting today removes the provision in clause 146 of the bill that enabled regulations to prescribe offences. As I have previously mentioned, the government amendments also address outcomes of discussions with the opposition and further comments received from the ABA.
While these amendments are minor and technical in nature, the government acknowledges the importance of consultation to ensure that we are delivering a bill that aligns with the needs of the ACT’s veterinary profession and that I believe further strengthen the governance mechanisms in the bill.
These amendments will remove clause 10(3)(a)(b), which enables a person to be prosecuted under either this bill or animal welfare legislation; remove the ability of the board to delegate final decisions relating to complaints and instead the board will be able to delegate the investigative work only of complaints; include a provision that requires the board to consult with the profession before making a regulation under the act; include a provision that enables the minister to prescribe relevant bodies for consultation on the regulations and appointments to the board by disallowable instrument; and include provisions that require the minister to review the operation of the act by the end of its fifth year in operation and present a report of the review to the Legislative Assembly within six months of the day the review started.
Madam Assistant Speaker, I commend the government amendments to the Legislative Assembly.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (4.06): The Australian Veterinary Association drew subclauses 10(3)(a) and (b) to my attention. They would allow the owner or an employee of an animal’s owner to carry out restricted veterinary science on the
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video