Carter David: Veterinarians Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Carter David: Veterinarians Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:628;Page:906] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (National) 
: 
 I thank Eric Roy for his very good contribution to this debate. I am surprised the Minister could not answer him— 
Hon Tau Henare 
: I’m not. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: No I guess the member is right. But I see that the Minister is being briefed now so that he can try to explain his own legislation because Eric Roy raised some very valid questions. I say to Eric Roy that he has to understand that some of the answers to the questions he has raised are clearly elucidated in Part 4. We will look forward to spending the next 4 or 5 hours discussing that part so then his questions will be answered. The Minister now knows as well as the officials have been busy telling him where a definition of the complaints assessment committee exists within the legislation. 
This was a part of the legislation to which the select committee put in a huge amount of effort. We deal here with the very delicate situation of providing a rigorous fair complaints procedure that has the opportunity to test the competency of veterinarians to practise within New Zealand. It became very interesting to the committee that 50 percent of the submissions we heard were actually from owners of pets that had died and those owners felt very aggrieved that the veterinary profession had let them down. We had the sad case about which Doug Woolerton spoke so brilliantly earlier today in the Committee stage. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Oh come on. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: No Doug Woolerton sat through the select committee deliberation when we had the submission on Bianca the cockatoo. Bianca the cockatoo was owned by Maureen Green and Jeanette Parker. In fact Bianca’s full name was Bianca Parker-Green. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Is she allowed a vote? 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: No Bianca is not allowed to vote; sadly Bianca has passed on. But the point I am making here is that we were astounded by the strength of the submission we received around Bianca and her perceived treatment by the vet. So we want to make sure that we have a process— 
Katherine Rich 
: He’s crying; he’s moved. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: No no. I am certainly not that upset. We want to make sure that we develop a bill here that has a process by which in future cases of a Bianca the client of the vet has a legitimate process whereby the concern can be well aired and if a vet has acted incompetently the profession has a chance to discipline that particular person. 
I tell Eric Roy—and the Minister may by now understand—that making a complaint to the complaints assessment committee will in fact be the very first procedure that an aggrieved pet owner will go through and the committee will be the body by which the profession will judge whether a complaint is valid. It will not make a decision at that stage as to whether there should be disciplinary action. That is a further process to be handled through what we call the judicial committee. But in the case of this new legislation when passed Ms Parker and Ms Green would first of all approach the complaints assessment committee and present their case about the sad demise of Bianca and the committee would make a ruling as to whether a case existed that warranted investigation or whether the case required no further investigation. 
I know that I have spent some time talking about Bianca but that was the strongest case we had. We also had a very very moving case from Caroline and Angus Macdonald who were very concerned about the treatment their dog received. They took the opportunity to come before the select committee to try to ensure that we worked through this legislation to present an Act that would give such people the chance to have a fair hearing. Dennis and Gillian Weatherell also came to us because of the treatment they felt they had received from their own vet at the time on one of their dogs. The select committee found with the strength of presentation of those submissions that people feel very deeply obviously— 
Katherine Rich 
: Passionate about their animals. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
:—absolutely passionate—more passionate than the Minister is at the moment I might add in his treatment of this legislation. People become very passionately involved in the treatment their animals receive.