Page 875 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 March 2019
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consistency might be a good measure to apply, rather than selectively applying a dislike of emotive language.
I found it interesting that both Minister Steel and Ms Le Couteur felt the need to talk, perhaps in some detail, about bills that I have brought before the Assembly. In putting together the motion today, I was quite careful to address the issue of compliance and enforcement, which, of course, arose from Ms Le Couteur’s own comments in the paper. She said:
There simply aren’t enough DAS rangers to do all the work required.
My motion today said nothing about the items in my previous bills—nothing whatsoever. It was about ensuring that DAS has the resources required to do the work required, as Ms Le Couteur herself said.
I appreciate the minister providing some statistics. As I have previously mentioned in this place, when I have sought those statistics in questions on notice, the answer I have received has been that it is too much work to compile those statistics. Whilst Mr Steel has those statistics at his fingertips, he declines to provide them and then says that I am not making evidence-based policy. When he himself controls the evidence very carefully, it is really no wonder. It is quite concerning; it is dismissive. It is, I think, an abuse of power in this place to not follow the process of answering questions on notice, with Mr Steel pretending to say that the information is too difficult to collate when they can come up with them at any second. He quite clearly does have them. They are obviously not too difficult to collate.
I was a little flattered by Mr Steel’s comment that I had launched a campaign against dog registration. That was quite flattering. There were a couple of social media posts. Apparently I have launched a campaign. I will have to take that as a bit of a win. Obviously Mr Steel heard about it and thought it was bigger than it actually was. I will have to keep moving forward with that type of approach because it obviously has an impact on Mr Steel. I would love to do more of it.
I genuinely look forward to Mr Steel’s updates on the initiatives and the actions that arise from the independent review, the Maxwell review. We have heard very little about it here in this chamber. This is the review that Mr Steel held on to for five months before he released it. He has said today that he is actioning the majority of the recommendations in the Maxwell review. I am quite interested to hear that and I look forward to hearing more about it.
One of those is about dog registration, which is a tax on everyone. It is a tax on every dog owner, the vast majority of whom are doing the right thing. The vast majority of Canberra dog owners are responsible dog owners, yet it would appear that Mr Steel wants to tax them with an annual dog registration fee. Perhaps I am wrong; I look forward to hearing more about it. Mr Steel has not given me any information other than what he said today.
I want to bring to the attention of this place how condescending and hurtful Mr Steel’s comments were when he talked about potential changes that would mean that every
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