Page 1339 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 12 May 1993
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DOG CONTROL (AMENDMENT) BILL 1993
Debate resumed from 31 March 1993, on motion by Ms Szuty:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR WOOD (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (11.53): Madam Speaker, I take Mr Berry's call to indicate that the Government will be supporting Ms Szuty's amendments. We are still debating the application of one of her wishes. We have a drafting difficulty that is taking a little time to work through. For that reason, after discussion with Ms Szuty and others in the Assembly, we have agreed to adjourn the debate after my speech, so that we can refine that amendment.
Mr Moore: After the in-principle stage?
MR WOOD: Yes. There may be other speakers. Thank you, Mr Moore. The concern about dogs that attack people is widespread amongst the community, and properly so. I thank members generally for their interest in the subject. Mr Westende is preparing amendments. As Ms Szuty and Mr Westende know, we are continuing to follow up some of the thoughts that emerged at the seminar we ran recently, to see how we may further refine this Bill to do everything that is humanly possible to prevent dog attacks. We will never stop them altogether, but we must take every measure we can to reduce them to a bare minimum.
I think the clear message that has come from all over the community is that it is quite unacceptable that a person walking down the street should be attacked by a dog or even threatened by a dog. Society no longer accepts that. It may be that there will always be problems in your own backyard if your dog bites you. Indeed, the measures before us encompass that situation. That is the absolute responsibility - and fault, if you like - of that owner. I say that because a great number of attacks occur in a family's backyard, with the family's dog biting a member of the family. We have to understand that.
Mr Westende is proceeding, he tells me, with some of his amendments. I am not sure of the timing of all this. I am quite prepared for Ms Szuty's amendments to come through at her pace, and Mr Westende's likewise, and in due course I will bring some forward. In fact, in the end I may not have too many because they may well be encompassed by the proposals from other members of the Assembly. I have found support - almost unanimous support - for the view that we need to attend to the problem. We may bicker just a little about the precise wording that is to go into some of these amendments. That said, I indicate that the Government will be supporting the amendments proposed by Ms Szuty when we see the wording of the one still being drafted.
MR WESTENDE (11.57): The Liberal Party is quite happy with this outcome. As indicated privately to the Minister, we would be perfectly happy to submit our amendments to the Minister and have them considered by the working party that the Minister has appointed. It has become quite evident to me that the Dog Control Act needs tightening in many respects to promote the interests of both the dog owners and the general public. It is quite clear that dog ownership in the ACT is pretty high, and, unfortunately, so is the number of unregistered dogs.
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