Debates Weekly Hansard
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19, 20, 200821 19, AUGUST Debates WEEKLY HANSARD SEVENTH ASSEMBLY Legislative Assembly for the ACT WEEKLY HANSARD WEEKLY 28 MARCH 2012 www.hansard.act.gov.au PAGES 3565 - 4039 PAGES 2008 10 Wednesday, 28 March 2012 Minister for Community Services—withdrawal of remark ..................................... 1363 Animal Welfare Legislation (Factory Farming) Amendment Bill 2012 ................. 1363 Planning and Development (Public Notification) Amendment Bill 2012 ............... 1366 Standing and temporary orders—suspension ........................................................... 1370 Official Visitor Bill 2012 ......................................................................................... 1371 Canberra centenary .................................................................................................. 1377 Financial Management (Cost of Living) Amendment Bill 2012 ............................. 1391 University of Canberra and Canberra Institute of Technology ................................ 1400 Questions without notice: Planning—Throsby ....................................................................................... 1405 Construction industry—work safety ............................................................. 1406 Schools—Throsby ........................................................................................ 1408 Water—Cotter Dam ...................................................................................... 1410 Roads—cycling accidents ............................................................................. 1412 Water—Cotter Dam ...................................................................................... 1414 Fitters Workshop .......................................................................................... 1415 Construction industry—sham contracting .................................................... 1418 Crime—domestic violence ........................................................................... 1419 Economy—health ......................................................................................... 1420 Supplementary answers to questions without notice: Kids Under Cover program .......................................................................... 1424 University of Canberra and Canberra Institute of Technology .................... 1425 Planning and Development (Public Notification) Amendment Bill 2012 ............... 1425 Official Visitor Bill 2012 ......................................................................................... 1425 University of Canberra and Canberra Institute of Technology ................................ 1426 Canberra centenary .................................................................................................. 1442 Childcare—Holder ................................................................................................... 1447 Supplementary Capital Works Program 2001-02 .................................................... 1464 Suicide—reduction .................................................................................................. 1465 Interactive entertainment industry ........................................................................... 1476 Adjournment: ActewAGL Canberra area theatre awards .................................................... 1485 Australian Hospitality Association awards ................................................... 1485 ActewAGL Canberra area theatre awards .................................................... 1487 Charnwood community carnival .................................................................. 1487 St Francis Xavier college—trade training centre ......................................... 1487 Canberra Mosque open day .......................................................................... 1487 Greek National Day ...................................................................................... 1487 Ms Suzy Batkovic ......................................................................................... 1488 Riding for Cambodian Kids .......................................................................... 1489 Canberra Grammar school—cricket ............................................................. 1490 Legislative Assembly for the ACT Wednesday, 28 March 2012 MR SPEAKER (Mr Rattenbury) took the chair at 10 am and asked members to stand in silence and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of the Australian Capital Territory. Minister for Community Services—withdrawal of remark MS BURCH (Brindabella—Minister for Community Services, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Women and Minister for Gaming and Racing): Yesterday afternoon Mr Assistant Speaker was going to review Hansard regarding a comment I made, and I am happy to withdraw the comment I made yesterday. Animal Welfare Legislation (Factory Farming) Amendment Bill 2012 Ms Le Couteur, pursuant to notice, presented the bill and its explanatory statement. Title read by Clerk. MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (10.02): I move: That this bill be agreed to in principle. I rise today to present the Assembly with a bill to address animal welfare issues in factory farming. My bill covers four areas. It makes it illegal to keep hens in a cage system in the ACT from 1 January 2014. It requires the responsible ACT government minister to advocate at the national level for better welfare conditions for poultry. It outlaws sow stalls and farrowing crates so that only free range pig farming may occur in the ACT. Lastly, it makes minor improvements to the successful egg labelling system that has been operating in the ACT since the 2009 legislation. Although the bill that I am tabling today has in it a lot of the things that were in the bill that was debated and not largely supported in 2009, I believe there is in fact very good reason to debate this issue again. Last week Ms Porter, who, unfortunately, has just left the chamber, introduced a motion to undertake further negotiations with Parkwood farm to convert to a barn-laid facility. Very positively, this motion was in fact amended and passed in a stronger form so that it said ―undertake further negotiations with Parkwood farm to adopt alternative egg production methods‖. Clearly the majority of the Assembly does not support the cage egg production methods used at Parkwood. I very much hope that the government will succeed in its current negotiations with Parkwood. If it does then passing this bill will ensure that battery cage egg production will never again occur in the ACT, and that would be a good thing. If, however, the negotiations do fail, passing this bill is another way of achieving the same aim, by saying that it is the will of the Assembly because we do not regard this as an 1363 28 March 2012 Legislative Assembly for the ACT acceptable way to treat animals. So regardless of what happens with the government’s negotiations with Parkwood, banning battery cage egg production in the ACT is the right thing to do. Battery cage egg production has already been banned by many countries, including basically the European Union—the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Norway—as well as some states in Canada and the US. It has been banned because it is widely recognised that hens kept in cage systems suffer chronically and that they are one of the most abused of all farmed animals. This bill is intended to improve the quality of life for hens by requiring that egg production only be undertaken using more humane alternatives. A battery cage, just to remind members, is made of metal and it usually houses three to five birds, although I believe the ones in Parkwood house less. In any case, the bird has less space than the A4 sheet of paper that I am reading from. The small size of cages means that birds cannot turn around easily, they cannot stretch out, they cannot flap their wings and they cannot exercise. The floor of the cage slopes down at the front so that the eggs just roll on out. Hens kept in these sorts of conditions suffer. This bill is designed to improve their welfare. Cages simply do not satisfy the hens’ behavioural needs. They did not evolve to live in this way. Cages do not enable them to perch, dust bathe, forage and lay their eggs in a secluded place. If this bill is passed the ban on cage egg production would take effect from 1 January 2014, which would provide time for cage egg producers in the ACT to modify their production systems at minimal cost. Currently there is, of course, only one producer of cage eggs in the ACT, Parkwood farm in west Macgregor, which is owned by Pace. I have written and asked Pace if I could visit their facility to see it myself but Pace has not agreed to this. Apart from the animal welfare issues, which are the Greens’ number one issue, as I mentioned in the debate last week another reason to restrict factory farming—cage egg production, of course, is part of that—is human health and the increasing use of antibiotics. Eighty per cent of antibiotics consumed in the world are consumed in factory farming locations. The World Health Organisation have been warning for a few years about the grim outlook for antibiotics for human beings. They are saying that we are entering into an era where bacteria are increasingly becoming antibiotic resistant and common injuries such as scratches and falls, where the skin is broken and there is an infection, could well end up killing people. A lot of advanced