Dean JacquiHon JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki): Thank you so much Madam Assistant Speaker. I am pleased to be able to congratulate Ian McKelvie on having his member's bill read for the first time the Dog Control (Category 1 Offences) Amendment Bill. It is a short bill—there is one clause—but it is a significant bill and it is one step towards improving the Dog Control Act and dog control legislation in New Zealand which I must say is ready for some work. In terms of the Dog Control Act and the work on it this was a part of that work when we were in Government. Again I want to congratulate Ian McKelvie for having the foresight to think to himself what we could pick up from this piece of work that the National Government has done around raising the bar and protecting people and children from dog attacks because that's a really important thing to do for our community. So I want to congratulate him for doing that.But at the same time I want to challenge the Government to question them: where is this work? Where is this work on the Dog Control Act? It does sit with the Associate Minister of Local Government. Well there's a problem there isn't there? So I do hope that this piece of work which is designed to protect children in New Zealand gets the same focus from this Government as it has from our member Ian McKelvie in Opposition.So yes it is a simple bill. All it does is allow offences which are category 1 offences which means offences which are not punishable by imprisonment to be heard by a justice of the peace or a community magistrate rather than a District Court judge. Two really important things about that: first of all yes it frees up the District Court system to deal with more pertinent matters. That's important of course it is. But even more important is to be mindful of the welfare of the dog involved and to be mindful of the welfare of the owners. So this addition to the Dog Control Act will have a hugely beneficial impact on dogs—and it could be any of our pet dogs who are in the pound waiting for a process to take place inside a local authority. We all know what happens to dogs who are deprived of human attention and love and stimulation and security and all of those things: they go backwards in terms of behaviour and then ultimately we have seen in New Zealand where some of those dogs have gone past the point where they could be rehabilitated before they get to have their day in court.So the genesis behind this amendment to the Dog Control Act is really well considered really well founded and immensely doable. It's not going to be hard to bring this new amendment into effect. I want to acknowledge and congratulate the Labour Party who we've heard from so far and who are supporting this bill. The member who spoke prior to the dinner break did raise reservations around the bill and I didn't really get the opportunity to really hear that member tease out just in fact what he meant. So it will be interesting to see how these concerns are dealt with through select committee.But I want to come back to the main point which is: where are the amendments to the Dog Control Act? It has been what 10 months nearly 11 months now since we've had an Associate Minister of Local Government whose job delegation it has been. So where are those amendments—where is the focus from this Government about keeping our young children safe on the streets and in their homes? We don't want to have any other incidences of little children having severe bite marks on their faces because I tell you what: if it happens and there isn't any bill before this House from the Government we have to look to them and ask them why they haven't done the work necessary. [Interruption] They don't like it but it's true.