Page 2378 - Week 08 - Thursday, 6 June 2013

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Territory and Municipal Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2013

Mr Rattenbury, pursuant to notice, presented the bill, its explanatory statement and a Human Rights Act compatibility statement.

Title read by Clerk.

MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo—Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Housing, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and Minister for Ageing) (11.31): I move:

That this bill be agreed to in principle.

The bill that I am presenting today makes minor and technical amendments to legislation in the Territory and Municipal Services portfolio.

As members would be aware, it is common for ACT government agencies to initiate portfolio bills. These bills generally deal with minor amendments required to the legislation governing their operations. Examples include the biannual planning, building and environment legislation amendment bills and the regular justice and community safety legislation amendment bills.

Today I am presenting a bill that adds the Territory and Municipal Services portfolio to that list of agencies. The bill that I am presenting is designed to better administer Canberra’s cemeteries and primary industry.

Members, I am missing a page of my speech, it seems, so I will just have to continue on, as opposed to the presentation version.

And finally, amendments to the Stock Act 2005 and Stock Regulation 2005 facilitate the setting of the stock levy.

The bill contains a number of minor amendments, and I will not go into all of them now. But I will highlight a few of the more interesting amendments contained in the bill.

I propose amendments to the Animal Diseases Act and Animal Diseases Regulation to bring the ACT’s feed tag labelling requirements into line with the rest of the country. Part 5 of the Animal Diseases Act requires that feed tags be attached to bags of stockfeed or meal that are sold or supplied in the ACT. These feed tags must contain a statement declaring whether or not the feed contains “restricted feed material”. Restricted feed material must not be fed to ruminants—that is, cud-chewing mammals like cattle and sheep.

All Australian jurisdictions have agreed to complementary legislation to prohibit the feeding of animal materials to ruminants. This requirement is to stop the introduction into Australia of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly called BSE or “mad


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