O'Connor Damien: Local Government Law Reform Bill — In Committee 
O'Connor Damien: Local Government Law Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:632;Page:3734] 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister for Rural Affairs) 
: 
 When this issue first arose I was not overly enthusiastic about microchipping dogs. However having read through the issues having thought about them for some time and having been part of the decision-making process I can say that I accept the decision. 
I have absolutely zero tolerance for any dog that would harm a person—I would shoot those dogs on the spot. Of course the key driver for this legislation was an attempt by the Government to reduce the harm caused by dogs mainly on humans. But of course there is also the ongoing and quite prevalent issue of dogs worrying farm stock which the National Party seems to have forgotten. We had two objectives. The first objective was to try to reduce the number of horrible attacks on people—young and old big and small—that were occurring up and down this country. In my view if any dog were to attack a person I would have that dog destroyed on the spot. 
Hon Member 
: Absolutely. 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: So what can Parliament do about it? Well the Government has put forward this proposal and there are a couple of benefits for the farming community in it. Firstly there is the issue of reducing the number of attacks on farmers’ animals. 
Sandra Goudie 
: Rubbish! 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: Perhaps the member has been away from her farming community for too long to know that those attacks still occur. My approach over time would be that any dog without a microchip would be destroyed on the spot. 
There is another big issue that farmers should see in this whole debate. In the long term farmers will not be able to sell food from this country anywhere around the world unless they can show full traceability so that the steak on a plate in the UK can be traced back to a farm somewhere in New Zealand. Currently there are stories in most of the farming newspapers about problems around eartags including the fact that they are dropping out and the fact that we cannot clearly identify animals. That matter is important firstly for the control of tuberculosis of course but secondly because the companies that kill the stock do not know exactly where that stock has come from and they cannot show traceability down through their production chain. 
I believe that before very long those European and US buyers of our meat will demand not only that the animals the meat comes from must be clearly identified but also that all animals in the food production system are to be identified—that includes farm dogs as well—so we will have to be able to guarantee absolutely that any animal in a farm production system can be accurately identified. How should we do that? 
We currently have a dog registration system—maybe the National Party will propose doing away with that; I am not sure why it would not do so if it wanted to be consistent. Under our current dog registration system people used to receive a collar when they registered their dogs but nowadays they do not get one. Many farmers do not put collars on their dogs and many farmers do not register their dogs. One either argues for the integrity of the system or one does not. 
Currently in food production systems in this country and particularly in aquaculture people are microchipping eels and salmon. Why? The reason is that the people involved in food production know they need to identify their animals so they can prove that the food they are selling comes from a salmon food production system. If we can microchip eels and salmon in this country I would suggest that the cost of microchipping dogs is not too prohibitive. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Before I call the next speaker I say to members that chaos maybe fruitful in furthering some forms of management but it will not be the parent of good order here—that is the first thing. The second thing I inform members of is that although I expect interjections I will not allow another speaker to be drowned out. The third thing I would suggest to all new members is that they look up Speaker’s ruling 57/3 regarding interjections.