Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Exhibited animals legislation Consultation Regulatory Impact Statement Great state. Great opportunity. Page a Exhibited animals legislation CS2656 11/13 © State of Queensland, 2013. The Queensland Government supports and encourages the dissemination and exchange of its information. The copyright in this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY) licence. Under this licence you are free, without having to seek our permission, to use this publication in accordance with the licence terms. You must keep intact the copyright notice and attribute the State of Queensland as the source of the publication. Note: Some content in this publication may have different licence terms as indicated. For more information on this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/deed.en. Have your say You are invited to have your say about new legislation being developed to regulate the exhibition of live animals and the keeping of live animals for exhibition. The proposed legislation would modernise Queensland’s legislative framework for regulating exhibited animals. A single, cohesive regulatory framework would replace the provisions that are currently spread across several Acts. The legislation would simplify the licensing requirements for exhibitors in Queensland and allow a greater range of species to be exhibited, provided the risks were managed. This consultation draft Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) explains why new legislation is needed, describes options for regulation and details the impacts of each option. It also fulfils requirements under the Competition Principles Agreement (see Part 7). The RIS is being released in draft form for consultation so that public comments can be considered before it is finalised. The proposed changes will affect industry members the most; however, all members of the community are welcome to comment. Feedback from industry and the community will help to ensure the legislation achieves the right balance between allowing exhibition and minimising risks to animal welfare, biosecurity (e.g. pest establishment and spreading of disease) and public safety. Please submit your responses to this RIS by 5 pm, Monday 10 February 2014. You can submit your responses online at www.daff.qld.gov.au via the form ‘Exhibited animals legislation: Consultation Regulatory Impact Statement response form’. Alternatively, you can post or email more detailed written responses: Mail: Exhibited animals legislation—Consultation Regulatory Impact Statement Biosecurity Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry GPO Box 46 BRISBANE QLD 4001 Email: [email protected] Under laws providing for freedom of information, your submission may be made available to others. You can also participate in a webinar where you will have the opportunity to discuss the options described in this document with representatives of Biosecurity Queensland. Page 1 Exhibited animals legislation Contents Have your say 1 Summary 3 1. Issues statement 5 2. Policy objectives 8 3. Options and alternatives 9 Option 1—Retain existing provisions 9 Option 1A—Retain existing provisions with a 45% fee increase 14 Option 2—Have no industry-specific legislation 15 Option 2A—Have minimal legislative intervention to allow industry self-regulation 15 Option 3—Develop new legislation 17 Options analysis 22 Alternative approaches in other jurisdictions 22 4. Impact assessment 24 Quantification of application-related costs for each option 24 Case studies 29 Assessment of all costs and benefits 36 5. Consultation 41 6. Preferred option 42 7. Consistency with other policies and regulation 43 Competition Principles Agreement 43 Fundamental legislative principles 43 Financial accountability 43 8. Implementation, evaluation and compliance strategy 44 Appendix 1 Background information about the exhibited animals industry in Queensland 45 Appendix 2 Regulatory approaches in other jurisdictions 48 New South Wales 48 Victoria 49 Tasmania 50 Other Australian jurisdictions 50 United Kingdom 50 Page 2 Exhibited animals legislation Summary Exhibition of animals in Queensland has a range of economic, social and other benefits; however, it also entails risk. Risks include the potential for: • animal welfare problems • wild animals to establish as pests and to spread disease • wild animals to cause human injury and death. Also, the demand for animals may trigger illegal and unsustainable taking of animals from the wild. This RIS explores options for government intervention in the exhibited animals industry in Queensland that would reasonably enable animal exhibition while minimising risks to animal welfare, biosecurity (e.g. pest establishment and spreading of disease) and public safety. The current Queensland legislation regulating animal exhibition is fragmented. Some exhibitors need multiple licences (each with their own fees and processes) because they are regulated under more than one Act. Also, there are gaps in coverage of some public safety and animal welfare risks. Some species cannot be exhibited at all, even if the associated risks can be minimised. It is unlikely that all exhibitors would participate in an industry self-regulation scheme if regulation of the industry was minimised. Under minimal regulation, it would be more difficult to enforce the current prohibitions on private keeping of the vast majority of exotic and native animals (particularly vertebrates) and some exotic fish. The result of patchy self-regulation and increased incidence of private keeping would likely be an increase in risks to animal welfare, biosecurity and public safety as well as an increase in black-market demand for animals illegally taken from the wild. Even low levels of unmitigated risk under self-regulation could have very serious consequences not just for visitors to exhibitions but also for the broader community. The government’s preferred option is a single new piece of legislation to modernise and streamline the way Queensland regulates the exhibited animals industry. Public consultation on a discussion paper in 2008 confirmed general support for a single piece of legislation to replace the provisions that are currently spread across several Acts. Targeted consultation with industry members and some animal welfare interest groups occurred in 2011 and 2012 to confirm their general support for key principles proposed to underlie a cohesive regulatory framework for the industry. The proposed new legislation would impose a general obligation on exhibitors of animals to minimise risks to animal welfare, biosecurity and public safety. This general obligation would apply to most exhibitors of exotic animals and native animals regardless of whether they require a licence under the legislation. Many aspects of this general obligation would be clarified in standards and licence conditions. Only those exhibitors who currently need a licence would need a licence under the new legislation. There would be only one licence type. Exhibitors who currently require multiple licences would be able to exhibit under one licence. Licences would be granted for up to 3 years. The new legislation would place more emphasis on monitoring licensed animal exhibitors to verify they are complying with their obligations. Site visits would be charged to the exhibitor. The frequency of visits would depend on the compliance record of the exhibitor and whether the exhibitor is part of an industry quality- assurance scheme that deals with the requirements of the legislation. This would create an incentive for industry members to proactively minimise risks to animal welfare, biosecurity and public safety. Current licence fees do not recover all current costs, especially when compliance monitoring across all legislative requirements is considered. Further, small exhibitors currently subsidise larger ones and fees for permits to exhibit exotic animals are much lower than those to exhibit native animals. Page 3 Exhibited animals legislation Under the new legislation, exhibitors who undertake more complex activities would pay higher fees. Small demonstrators of native animals, who make up the majority of exhibitors, would pay either less than or around the same as they do now. The few large exhibitors would pay much higher fees than they do presently. Those who exhibit exotic animals only (magic acts, circuses and two zoos) would also pay higher fees compared to the current very low rate. Under the new legislation, the total annual cost (including site visit charges) to the Queensland industry would be about $183 000 in 2015–16; the total cost would be expected to increase to around $126 000 if the current legislation was retained. The new cost is approximately 0.2% of the Queensland industry’s total annual expenditure, which is broadly estimated to be $100 million. Page 4 Exhibited animals legislation 1. Issues statement Animals are kept in captivity in Queensland for many reasons including private recreation, exhibition and commerce. Domestic animals (common pets and farm animals) and some wild native animals (such as sulphur- crested cockatoos) can be kept privately without a licence by any person in Queensland. Other native animals (such as carpet pythons) can be kept privately under a licence; however, the private keeping of many other native and exotic animals is generally not permitted in Queensland or in any other Australian jurisdiction. There are good reasons for regulating the keeping of wild