Kedgley Sue: Animal Welfare (Treatment of Animals) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Kedgley Sue: Animal Welfare (Treatment of Animals) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:668;Page:15232] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 I start by acknowledging as Phil Twyford did the members of Save Animals from Exploitation the SPCA and all the hundreds of New Zealanders who took the trouble to contact MPs to email MPs and to write to MPs pleading with them to support the Animal Welfare (Treatment of Animals) Amendment Bill. They will be desperately disappointed that Government members who claim to support animal welfare will tonight be voting against this bill. 
I predicted that feeble excuses would be trotted out tonight to try to justify the fact that Government members are voting for the vested interests that want to keep animals in cages and not voting for the animals. But I did not realise how feeble the excuses would be. I was astonished to hear for example that one of the reasons was that the Minister would have powers under this bill to override the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee. The Minister of Agriculture has spent the last 2 years complaining that he does not have the power to change the pig code that it is up to the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee and that there is nothing he can do as he does not have the powers. So we have come up with this bill and we have given him the powers to amend the Act. But he says he is opposing this bill because it would give him the powers to amend the pig code which is what every New Zealander wants the Minister to do. How feeble is that? 
There was another feeble excuse; I think it was left to poor Dr Jackie Blue. I know that in her heart of hearts she wants to get rid of sow crates. She felt sick in her stomach having to stand up and make these feeble excuses. In fact we now know why National was so adamantly opposed to allowing a conscience vote on this bill. Government members knew that if a conscience vote was held on this bill every member of this Parliament apart from the few who are completely beholden to vested interests would vote for it. They would vote to support the animals and not to support the vested interests. The Government was desperate not to allow a conscience vote on this bill which is all about conscience issues and ethical and moral issues because it knew that its members would support it instead of supporting the vested interests namely the Pork Industry Board and the Poultry Board which do not want this bill. 
Colin King gave another feeble excuse. He said we should leave it to the experts and the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee to decide what is best. I can tell members that New Zealanders are sick of listening to the so-called experts. As my colleague said the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee and others are cruelty experts—experts in justifying continued animal cruelty. New Zealanders are sick of listening to those officials. They want this Parliament to act to end animal cruelty. 
My bill gives Parliament the opportunity to do this. It gives Parliament the opportunity to phase out sow crates and to respond to public opinion. Members of the public will be shocked to learn that National and the ACT Party have opposed this bill. I tell those members not to come up with their weasel words about how they support animal welfare and how they have increased the budget. This bill is the litmus test of whether members of this Parliament support an end to animal cruelty whether they support animals or whether they support the vested interests. Frankly it is a travesty and I hope that the MPs who vote against this bill can live with their conscience. I hope that members of the public who have implored MPs to vote for this bill will remember the actions of members tonight when it comes to the next election. Thank you.