Page 2170 - Week 07 - Thursday, 7 August 2014
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Leave of absence
Motion (by Dr Bourke) agreed to:
That leave of absence be granted to Ms Gallagher for this sitting on account of her representation of the ACT at the national MH17 Memorial Service in Melbourne today.
Territory and Municipal Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2014
Debate resumed from 8 May 2014, on motion by Mr Rattenbury:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MR COE (Ginninderra) (11.02): The Canberra Liberals will support the passing of the Territory and Municipal Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2014. The bill only makes small changes to existing legislation and regulation, these being the Animal Diseases Act 2005, the Domestic Animals Act 2000, the Public Unleased Land Act 2013 and the Magistrates Court (Domestic Animals Infringement Notices) Regulation 2005.
In terms of the Animal Diseases Act, the bill changes the definition of “swill” to “prohibited pig feed”, in line with the nationally consistent approach outlined in the national foot and mouth disease action plan. This plan was developed by the National Biosecurity Committee in response to the Matthews report commissioned by the federal government. The bill also amends the definition of “swill feeding” to “feeding of prohibited pig feed” to meet the same national approach. These changes are only minimal and bring the ACT in line with a nationally agreed foot and mouth disease prevention strategy.
Of greater substance, a new section is introduced into the Animal Diseases Act, section 34A. This section allows the minister to remove the exemptions to prohibited pig feed in the event of a foot and mouth disease outbreak in Australia. As we saw in the United Kingdom in 2001, an outbreak of foot and mouth disease could devastate Australian production, tourism and trade, and this added section will allow the ACT government to better deal with an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the unlikely and unfortunate event of an outbreak in Australia
A minor change is made by the bill to the Domestic Animals Act. The term “cat curfew” will be replaced by the term “cat containment”, notably in the headings of sections 81 and 82 of the act. This change is made so that the intention of the legislation is better reflected. As a result of this change, the term “cat containment” is also substituted in the Magistrates Court (Domestic Animals Infringement Notices) Regulation 2005, replacing the term “cat curfew.”
Finally, the word “fixed” is inserted in section 26 of the Public Unleased Land Act to clarify that it is an offence to place a fixed, as opposed to a moveable, sign on public
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