Page 876 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 March 2019
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jack russell that jumps up on someone would be put down under my proposed legislation. Try telling that to the owner of Jack, who was ripped apart in his own backyard. Try telling that to the owner of Mimosa, the therapy alpaca. Try telling that to the dozens of people who have contacted me about dog attacks. I am sure they will be thrilled to know how condescending you were in your comments about jack russells jumping up on someone. I reckon they will be really thrilled to hear that that is the way you think of it.
It is true that we deserve to be able to walk around the lake, around our block or wherever it is without fear of being attacked, without fear of our kids being attacked. This is a common refrain I hear over and over again from people: “What if that had been a kid?” “What if that had been my baby in the pram?” “What if that had been an elderly person?” People feel that that is the next thing. Whether you are walking on your own, with your family, with your dog, with your cat or with your alpaca, or if it is your chickens that are attacked, people feel that more needs to be done. People feel that more needs to be done, and that is the thrust of the motion today: ensuring that there are enough DAS rangers to do all of the work required.
From what Mr Steel said, I fear a little that he feels there already are enough DAS staff. Perhaps the wording of my “calls on” paragraph was not strong enough to encourage change or additional rangers. Mr Steel seemed to think that the recent doubling—about a year ago—of DAS rangers means that there are enough rangers. It is quite clear that the community do not believe that there are enough DAS rangers. This is not about casting aspersions on the existing DAS rangers, who, as I have said over and over, have a difficult, dangerous and heart-wrenching job to do. But anyone—whether you are talking about police, nurses or any area of the public service—can only do what they can do. You can only do so much with the resources available to you.
This is not about changing the legislation. This is not about stronger laws. This is about ensuring that DAS is sufficiently resourced to undertake investigations, attend attacks and do all the report writing et cetera. There is a lot to it. It is about ensuring that they are able to do all of that and still attend new attacks that come in, new reports. Sometimes it is not even an actual attack. Sometimes it is a threatening dog or loose and stray dogs. We need to ensure that those rangers have the support they need from this government. That is the thrust of this motion.
I would like once again to thank everyone for their general support of the motion. I look forward to hearing much more about what else is happening. I look forward to hearing more from Minister Steel about exactly what the ACT government is going to do to provide the resources needed to ensure that current dog laws are effectively enforced and what they are doing to provide the resources needed so that dog attacks are investigated quickly and treated under the law with the urgency and seriousness that the community expects. I still get some reports that victims of dog attacks are not kept informed of the progress or the results of investigations. That is the thrust of this motion. Once again, thank you to everyone who has made a contribution today. I hope there will be some changes that will be for the benefit of the Canberra community as a result of this motion.
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