❓ Hon Colin de Grussa asks about the status of the Animal Welfare Act 2002 review. The Minister for Agriculture and Food confirms the review has commenced but is currently on hold due to resource constraints and other priorities.
AnsweredQoN 783Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
ANIMAL WELFARE ACT —
REVIEW
783. Hon COLIN de GRUSSA to the Minister for Agriculture and
Food:
I refer to the Animal Welfare Act
2002.
(1) Has the Department of Primary
Industries and Regional Development commenced a review of this act?
(2) If yes to (1), will the minister
please table the terms of reference?
(3) If yes to
(1), on what date did it commence and will the minister please provide a time
line and list of staff undertaking the review?
(4) If no to (1), why has the review
not commenced?
REVIEW
783. Hon COLIN de GRUSSA to the Minister for Agriculture and
Food:
I refer to the Animal Welfare Act
2002.
(1) Has the Department of Primary
Industries and Regional Development commenced a review of this act?
(2) If yes to (1), will the minister
please table the terms of reference?
(3) If yes to
(1), on what date did it commence and will the minister please provide a time
line and list of staff undertaking the review?
(4) If no to (1), why has the review
not commenced?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question.
I hope we will go into this during the debate today.
(1)–(4) Yes,
the review has commenced. The first consequence of that review was that it came
to my attention that we had a major deficiency in our legislation in Western Australia
in that we had no capability to enforce the national standards and guidelines
that we had lined up with the consent of the industry. The first part of our
attempts to modernise and review the act are before the house as we speak. In
addition to that process going on, we have started the process of developing
the values and aspirations that underpin the broader review. The member might
be familiar with the stakeholder event that was held in November 2017 to set
some of the scene. Work has also been commissioned from Acil Allen Consulting
to look at some of the specifics that a review might look into. Because of the
great demands that have been placed on the compliance part of our department in
the past year, with the tomato potato psyllid, the citrus canker and a range of
other biosecurity problems, together with the challenges of getting the first
part of the legislation through, and the issues that arose out of the live
export matter, which required a great deal of attention from the department,
and the requirement to respond to tens of thousands of submissions on the
poultry standards, I have put further work on this matter on hold until the end
of the year. We have finite resources, and we want to dedicate them in the most
cost-effective way. I anticipate that it will probably take a couple of years
to complete the review and introduce legislation into this place.
I hope we will go into this during the debate today.
(1)–(4) Yes,
the review has commenced. The first consequence of that review was that it came
to my attention that we had a major deficiency in our legislation in Western Australia
in that we had no capability to enforce the national standards and guidelines
that we had lined up with the consent of the industry. The first part of our
attempts to modernise and review the act are before the house as we speak. In
addition to that process going on, we have started the process of developing
the values and aspirations that underpin the broader review. The member might
be familiar with the stakeholder event that was held in November 2017 to set
some of the scene. Work has also been commissioned from Acil Allen Consulting
to look at some of the specifics that a review might look into. Because of the
great demands that have been placed on the compliance part of our department in
the past year, with the tomato potato psyllid, the citrus canker and a range of
other biosecurity problems, together with the challenges of getting the first
part of the legislation through, and the issues that arose out of the live
export matter, which required a great deal of attention from the department,
and the requirement to respond to tens of thousands of submissions on the
poultry standards, I have put further work on this matter on hold until the end
of the year. We have finite resources, and we want to dedicate them in the most
cost-effective way. I anticipate that it will probably take a couple of years
to complete the review and introduce legislation into this place.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.