❓ The WA government is developing stronger legislation, including restraining orders and measures to address live streaming, to combat threatening and potentially illegal animal activist conduct that disrupts lawful activities.
AnsweredQoN 244Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ANIMAL ACTIVISM
244. Mr R.S. LOVE to the Minister for Police:
I have a supplementary question.
What is the government's long-term strategy to address the growing rise
of threatening, and potentially illegal, animal activist conduct?
244. Mr R.S. LOVE to the Minister for Police:
I have a supplementary question.
What is the government's long-term strategy to address the growing rise
of threatening, and potentially illegal, animal activist conduct?
AnswerView source ↗
The member will be aware that
recently an individual was charged, convicted and fined for his activity in
that regard. In addition, both the Attorney General and I, along with our
agencies, are developing stronger legislation to deal with animal activism. The
Attorney General has been looking at using a form of restraining order for
repeated actions. The Commissioner of Police is looking at some circumstances
of aggravation, such as live video streaming and so forth, to some form of
worldwide or smaller audience. They are the two areas that we are looking at
when strengthening the law. We do not want to see this continue.
When
people disrupt the lawful activities of farmers or others going about their
business and everyday life, those disrupted should have the full protection of
the law. Because the times are changing, with the advent of technology, part of
the incentive for people to carry out this activity is so they can live stream
to a social media audience, whether it be around the state, around Australia or
around the world, and we want to disrupt that. We will look at putting laws in
place that impede that activity so that we can crack down on it. The police are
very keen to pursue that activity. Assistant Commissioner Murray Smallpage and
others have been actively talking to people in regional areas.
The SPEAKER : I remind members
to turn off their mobile phones. It is amazing that when one goes off, everyone
looks innocent but there is always someone who looks more innocent than the
others.
recently an individual was charged, convicted and fined for his activity in
that regard. In addition, both the Attorney General and I, along with our
agencies, are developing stronger legislation to deal with animal activism. The
Attorney General has been looking at using a form of restraining order for
repeated actions. The Commissioner of Police is looking at some circumstances
of aggravation, such as live video streaming and so forth, to some form of
worldwide or smaller audience. They are the two areas that we are looking at
when strengthening the law. We do not want to see this continue.
When
people disrupt the lawful activities of farmers or others going about their
business and everyday life, those disrupted should have the full protection of
the law. Because the times are changing, with the advent of technology, part of
the incentive for people to carry out this activity is so they can live stream
to a social media audience, whether it be around the state, around Australia or
around the world, and we want to disrupt that. We will look at putting laws in
place that impede that activity so that we can crack down on it. The police are
very keen to pursue that activity. Assistant Commissioner Murray Smallpage and
others have been actively talking to people in regional areas.
The SPEAKER : I remind members
to turn off their mobile phones. It is amazing that when one goes off, everyone
looks innocent but there is always someone who looks more innocent than the
others.
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.