Burns Brendon: Animal Welfare (Treatment of Animals) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Burns Brendon: Animal Welfare (Treatment of Animals) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:668;Page:15227] 
BRENDON BURNS (Labour—Christchurch Central) 
: 
 I regret to say that we see crocodile tears from the members opposite when it comes to issues of animal welfare. They are selective about what they choose to act on. About 18 months ago we saw the  
Sunday 
 programme that exposed the appalling treatment that pigs are exposed to in sow crates. There was harrowing footage on our TV screens and graphic images of pigs in absolute squalor and distress. Those are not just my words in describing it; the Prime Minister for one said he found those scenes “very very disturbing”. The Minister of Agriculture said that he found the scenes distressing. There was a promise that there would be an urgent review of the animal welfare code yet here we are 18 months later and nothing has been done. Nothing has been done in respect of that code and making it work for animals. 
Meanwhile at the beginning of last year Simon Bridges introduced a member’s bill dealing with domestic animals which the Government chose to adopt as a Government bill the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill. It was sped through Parliament as a Government bill with all the support that that entails because it was a very popular measure with many New Zealanders. But the Government sits on its hands in respect of pig welfare having said how distressed it was. 
Another example of the disparity that the Government shows in respect of animal welfare came about a year ago when there were reports that 18000 cows would be farmed above Lake Ohau if the application was approved. We would have seen those cows kept in factory farming conditions for up to 8 months of the year—8 months of the year! Such was the concern of the Government that again the Prime Minister— 
Jo Goodhew 
: What a load of bollocks. 
BRENDON BURNS 
: —and I will quote for the junior Government whip the Prime Minister’s own words—was very concerned about that issue the Minister of Agriculture was very concerned about that issue and the Minister for the Environment was very concerned about that issue. The issue has gone away in the interim. But the pigs are still left there—that percentage that is left in sow crates. They could be left there until 2017 if this Government does not act. 
One of the extraordinary things that came out of the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill which concerned domestic animals was a submission in support of it from the Pork Industry Board. A Pork Industry Board submission said that the industry found the abuse of animals abhorrent. I found that to be the most extraordinary submission I have heard in my time on the Primary Production Committee. I challenged the Pork Industry Board representative. He thought New Zealanders were concerned about animal abuse but when New Zealanders think about animal abuse they think about those appalling graphic images on the  
Sunday 
 documentary of pigs in absolute distress kept in sow crates for most of their lives—an issue that this good bill the Animal Welfare (Treatment of Animals) Amendment Bill would address very rapidly. 
Let us not have any nonsense about this legislation affecting the transportation of animals; it has nothing to do with that. The bill simply asks that the Government act upon what is actually explicit in the animal welfare code already. There should not be so-called exceptional circumstances to allow pigs to live in abject misery for year after year under the current application of how those rules are put in place. 
Shane Ardern 
: I think we agree with you on that Brendon. 
BRENDON BURNS 
: Absolutely. I put it to the representative of the Pork Industry Board when we were considering the very rapidly pushed through Animal Welfare Amendment Bill in respect of domestic animals how he would like to sit for most of his life in a sow crate about the size of this parliamentary bench that I am standing at. Sows are left in those crates for month after month. It is an appalling situation; this bill goes to remedy it. 
Government members have said that they are absolutely distressed about the images they saw on television. The images were not manufactured—that has been acknowledged—and now we have an opportunity through this member’s bill from Sue Kedgley to address this issue. Most New Zealanders want to see it happen. Most businesses in the pork industry have actually put in place practices to remove the constant use of sow crates. I applaud those in the pork industry wise enough to recognise the issues of animal welfare and to acknowledge that they are important not just to the fate of the pigs but to our own sense of ourselves as human beings. If we cannot treat animals properly and give them a fair crack of the whip how on earth can we expect human beings to look after each other? If we are not prepared to put in place a code that envisaged that sow crates would be allowed to be used only in exceptional circumstances— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: I regret to advise the member that his time has expired.