Page 4128 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 24 October 2018
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The dog owner went on to discuss the fact that the playground was full of small children and expressed their dismay at what could have happened if a child was attacked. And this is a fear I hear over and over again.
On 8 November 2017, in Lyons, the two dogs that attacked a woman had been seen loose at the suburb’s early childhood centre only moments before. The woman was hospitalised after the dogs attacked her, injuring her arms and legs. A witness said he heard screams and rushed over to see the dogs attacking the 32-year-old woman. “They were really, really going at her. They mauled her pretty badly,” he said. He and other members of the public got the dogs off the woman before police and rangers arrived and caught the dogs. Children were about to arrive there for before-school care when the dogs attacked.
We are a first-world country. We are the capital of our nation. Our children and our residents should not be fearful of dog attacks in their local playgrounds and streets. Parents should not feel the need to post warnings on social media sites about these issues. This is not a recent issue. This is something the Canberra Liberals have been pursuing for a number of years. While this government tries to paint itself as responsible and proactive, it has, in reality, effectively done nothing except release some reports and give platitudinous and self-congratulatory speeches.
On 18 September 2014 Alistair Coe spoke in support of the government’s Domestic Animals Amendment Bill. Prophetically, Mr Coe said:
… like all pieces of legislation this bill will need to be enforced properly.
Sadly, as we now know, the government failed to enforce that bill properly in 2014 and every year since, and as a consequence hundreds of Canberrans have been injured in dog attacks.
As the situation continued to deteriorate and even more dog attacks were reported, again it was the Canberra Liberals who called for action. In March 2017 Mr Doszpot prepared a motion which was to try to get the government to seriously address what was becoming a major public safety issue and a major community concern. In March 2017 Mr Doszpot implored the Labor and Greens members of this place to support a series of recommendations to improve dog management. The Labor-Greens government watered down the Canberra Liberals’ proposals, and effectively nothing happened.
Ms Le Couteur famously said, in meek support of the government’s do-nothing approach to the growing level of dog attacks:
I am not convinced that even higher penalties will work, and I am reluctant to commit to even higher penalties without substantial community consultation. What is the real world impact?
We know what happened to get the government to take an interest. It was the death of a Canberra resident. Within days of that tragedy in 2017 the then minister finally
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