Page 3959 - Week 11 - Thursday, 26 September 2019
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of an animal will now apply where the confinement causes, or is likely to cause, death as well as injury or pain.
Amendment 6 also makes a minor technical amendment to clause 7, to amend the term “wild”, because this section only applies to a person in charge of an animal where an animal would not be classified as a wild animal. Amendment 7 is a minor amendment to clause 11 to move the example of locking an animal in a hot car from section 15 to this section, as it is more appropriate to this section.
Amendments agreed to.
Clause 11, as amended, agreed to.
Clauses 12 to 17, by leave, taken together and agreed to.
Clause 18.
MR STEEL (Murrumbidgee—Minister for City Services, Minister for Community Services and Facilities, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Minister for Roads) (11.51): I move amendment No 8 circulated in my name [see schedule 1 at page 4003]. This amendment substitutes clause 18, relating to transport and containment of an animal, to no longer include the term “contained” for consistency and to clarify this provision. This will assist in interpreting the act. This means that this clause will now focus on the transport of animals.
Amendment agreed to.
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (11.52): I move amendment No 3 circulated in my name [see schedule 2 at page 4006]. This is also a qualifying amendment to protect the intentions of the government’s bill. The amendment inserts a section into clause 18 of the bill which replaces section 15 of the act. This section makes it an offence to transport an animal in a way that causes, or is likely to cause, the death of or unnecessary injury, pain or stress to the animal. The penalty under this section is 100 penalty units, one year of imprisonment or both.
In principle, this is a notion that we support. But we are concerned about the broadness of this clause, because transporting animals in any circumstance is reasonably likely to cause unnecessary stress.
I would like you to reflect again on the intentions of this bill. Do we want to outlaw livestock trucks in the ACT? Do we mean that all livestock trucks must circumnavigate the ACT to get to their destination? Do we want to outlaw horse floats? Do we want to criminalise people taking their distressed cat to the vet? Can we take dogs on planes when they are not happy to be doing so?
These are the issues that my amendment today is trying to clarify: that injury, pain or stress is not to be considered unnecessary just because the animal is being transported in accordance with veterinary or industry requirement or practice. So this protects veterinary approved transport.
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