Lees-Galloway Iain: Animal Welfare Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLees-Galloway Iain: Animal Welfare Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 27 August 2013. Volume:693;Page:13068. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North): I understand that as well. It is a pleasure to follow my colleague from theManawatū Ian McKelvie. I think he spoke very well to the purposes and thrust of the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill which is to ensure and improve animal welfare. He recognised as I am sure other speakers have how important New Zealand taking a positive and progressive stance on animal welfare is to our international reputation and therefore how important it is to our economy. There is no doubt that although people are probably acutely aware of welfare issues when it comes to domestic animals—pets cats dogs mice and birds—perhaps sometimes farm animals particularly for urban dwellers are a little bit more distant and we need to be aware of the welfare of production livestock as well.What I want to talk about this morning in the brief call that I have is how our position relating to the testing of psychoactive substances on animals relates to that international reputation that is so important to our export economy. It was an oversight of the Health Committee not to receive submissions regarding the testing of psychoactive substances on animals. We had the choice. It was not out of scope for us to hear those submissions. It was a matter for the committee to decide on and the National Party members of that committee blocked us from hearing submissions on issues of animal testing of psychoactive substances. That was the National Party members on the Health Committee. The argument was made at the time that that wasnot the right piece of legislation to consider that issue. I disagree with that argument but the argument was made at the time. Indeed the chair of the Primary Production Committee also sits on the Health Committee and he made the comment at the time that the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill would be the appropriate mechanism through which to consider those issues.Therefore I implore the members of the Primary Production Committee to hear submissions on animal welfare in relation to the testing of psychoactive substances. I implore the thousands upon thousands of people who emailed us when we were considering the Psychoactive Substances Bill and the thousands upon thousands of people who have written to the Minister for Primary Industries facilitated by my colleague Trevor Mallard to make their submissions to the Primary Production Committee and have their voices heard. This Government far too often overrides democracy silences our citizens cuts people off from their democratic right to have their say about the way legislation is passed in this country and it must not do it on this bill. It must hear those submissions because—Shane Ardern: How many?IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: How many? I think about 4000 I reckon you will get. I may be pitching it a little low there but I reckon there will be about 4000. I reckon many of those will be substantive and the members on that committee should hear them. In fact I pledge that if that committee finds that there is too much work I will help out. I will come and substitute in. I will help out and come and support that committee so that it can hear those submissions because I think New Zealanders are sick and tired of having their democratic rights undermined and they need to be heard.This is not just an issue of animal welfare; this is an economic issue of New Zealand’s reputation internationally because we know that the world is looking at us because of the innovative approach that this Parliament has taken to psychoactive substances. The world is watching to see how that new regime actually works out and they will certainly be watching to see whether or not we accept the testing of psychoactive substances on animals. I have spoken to people working in the industry and they assure me that testing on animals is not necessary. If it is not necessary let us make it clear. Let us stop the testing of psychoactive substances on animals.