Kuriger Barbara: Animal Welfare Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKuriger Barbara: Animal Welfare Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 05 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3160. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country): It is a pleasure to be speaking this afternoon on the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill. To begin I will make just a couple of comments about comments made by the member for Hutt South the Hon Trevor Mallard this afternoon about the Ministry for Primary Industries and about it perhaps not being out there doing its job in the field. I have to say that in my experience—prior to my becoming a member of Parliament I did substantial work with the Ministry for Primary Industries on various committees in the area of animal welfare—a lot of work has been done with industries to help them to improve the practices in which they partake in order to earn an income.Although there has been some reference today about this bill having been around for a long time—and as one of the newer members of the Primary Production CommitteeI will acknowledge those who have gone before me—that does not mean actually that nothing has been happening out there. People who farm animals are really keen to make a difference. They know what the market perceptions are. They know what people are saying about their practices. There is a lot of work constantly going on all the time to make sure that they are upholding the best practices that they possibly can.We have heard a bit today about the 16 codes of welfare that are covered under the Act and of course these codes will be strengthened by the new regulations. In recent weeks I have been lucky enough to see some good presentations from people in the likes of the poultry industry who are actually transitioning to a phase where they are looking at moving from cages into colonies. So they are looking at actually taking the animals in that process out of those cages as fast as they economically can. Sometimes it is economically difficult to do some of those things in a hurry. But I am really heartened by the attitude of that industry in terms of being able to effect some change.There was a reference today about sheep shearing. In Te Kūiti in the heart of my electorate of Taranaki - King Country we have just had the New Zealand shearing championships. I have seen some of the graphics that have been coming out of Australia as well. I have to say that I did not see any sheep in distress and there were hundreds—probably thousands—of sheep shorn over that weekend. Those people are professionals who know the technicalities of shearing a sheep. I am sure that if I got hold of a sheep and tried to shear it it would probably panic but when you watch the likes of a champion like David Fagan shearing a sheep it is very professionally and very well done.We have also heard this afternoon about animals being outside rather than inside. I think I will be really interested to see what happens there. Some of the latest requests out there in terms of getting rid of our pests in New Zealand have been calls from some people in society to keep cats inside. So it is going to be really interesting because we have got people asking to get farm animals outside but then to keep cats inside.It is surprising to me in this bill that it has taken such a long time for us to realise that animals are sentient beings. Even though we know it it is going to be nice actually to see it finally written in legislation. I would also like to commend Mojo Mathers for her clauses around banning cosmetics testing on animals.What I would really like to highlight this afternoon is the fact that we are talking about being productive and competitive—and trade is very important to this country. Yes there is a need to have high standards. We are in a transition phase with a lot of industries. Earlier this year the Government released the New Zealand Animal Welfare Strategy. This sets a direction. It sets a vision. I think we would be arrogant to think that we in this House are the only people who are the experts on animal welfare. Industries have the ability to debate to construct evolving standards and to work with the Ministry for Primary Industries. People who work with animals do care about animals. The proposals in this legislation have been through rigorous consultation. They are set to act at a pace that our communities can live with. I think it is really important that this legislation has made that clearer and more transparent and that we can navigate our way through this legislation much more clearly than we could before.There is also one thing that I would like to point out around trade and biosecurity and that is the move to avoid unnecessary delays in urgent national biosecurity responses. Clause 5 inserts into section 3 of the Act the new subsections (2A) (2B) and (2C) to provide for exemption from the requirement to seek approval from an ethics committee before killing an animal in such circumstances. Sometimes we just do not have time to go through big long rigorous processes that could end up being substantially more dangerous to society than to the animal or animals concerned in those situations. So I am really really pleased to see that that is changing in this bill.This bill also clarifies what constitutes a significant surgical procedure that can be carried out only by a vet without defining it so narrowly that farmers cannot do routine procedures. So that is just another clarification that means people will not be able to say: “I did it because I didn’t know.” Things are unclear in the Act and people go ahead and do things and then find out later. So it is really important that people do know exactly what is in the legislation and exactly what they are allowed to do.The other thing is that there will be greater sanctions for those who mistreat animals. I think that is really important because at the end of the day we do have laws to protect us from those people who perhaps do not see things in the same way as the rest of us. That is not only farmers; that is pet owners and a whole raft of other people. We have also included wild animals in this. It is really important that just because they were not pets or owned by somebody they were not protected under our law. I am pleased to see that there are greater sanctions for those who do mistreat animals because for those who watch not only the daily 6 o’clock news but also social media which is a classic these days there are people showing pictures of mistreated animals so it is certainly important to get on top of that one.Under this legislation the vast majority of New Zealanders who take care of their animals very well will not see any major changes in terms of the way they are expected to behave towards their animals. I think it is going to deal with those people who as I said really do not have the feeling for animals. We need to deal with those people because one thing is for certain: those people in society who have trouble respecting animals often have trouble respecting people as well. Thank you.