Hutchison Paul: Dog Control Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Hutchison Paul: Dog Control Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:613;Page:9884] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Port Waikato) 
: 
 Part 5 deals with other miscellaneous related amendments and encapsulates a lot of the issues that still remain contentious. I would like to note clause 30 which refers to dogs causing serious injury and to the increase in imprisonment from 3 months to 3 years and in fines from $5000 to $20000. The case of Carolina Anderson certainly highlights and justifies the reasoning that where serious injury has been caused and gross irresponsibility displayed then these penalties are far more appropriate than the older ones. 
I also want to note clause 39 and the regulations adding further breeds or types to schedule 4. I note that the Regulations Review Committee is in the process of having a review of such procedures as this covering a whole range of bills. I think it is also in the cervical screening bill. There are a variety of other ones that the committee wants to review because in principle it has said that this is a bad mechanism. That is consistent with the very bad mechanism and example the Minister has shown today in bringing in a Supplementary Order Paper that is confusing that the chairman of the select committee did not even know about and that he has brought it in without the consultation that was demonstrated by all parties when deliberating to try to make this bill worthwhile. That just exemplifies how arrogant this Labour Government has become. Here is a bill that has languished for 4 years. It took a crisis before the Labour Government finally took notice of it and it brought in a Supplementary Order Paper without telling anyone about it. It has also brought in a section such as 78A that the Regulations Review Committee suggests is totally inappropriate. 
However this part deals with a whole variety of things including the offence of failing to register a dog. As I mentioned earlier on it has been a problem that has plagued New Zealand history for over 150 years. Rua Kenana was finally arrested at Maungapohatu in the Ureweras for failing to register a dog. While the Minister might say that it is important to have a national database why has he not organised such adatabase over the 4 years he has had available to him? Suddenly he wants to bring in universal microchipping and has said that we have to keep up with the new technologies. In fact the new technologies are evolving. They are not foolproof they are expensive and they are surrounded by compliance costs. 
I see this as an example of the innate congenital reflex of a socialist Labour Government. It cannot help itself gaining central control to make up a national database and now to advocate universal microchipping. What will the next thing be? We will see the  
Brave New World 
 that Aldous Huxley talks about and we will have microchipping of children. That is not as far fetched as the Minister in the chair who is laughing suggests. A constitutent phoned me up and said that that was something he seriously thought should be done in New Zealand because in the United States and the UK the same argument had been put up because of children who had been abducted. I can just see that in the socialist reflex of the present Labour Government: once it has universal microchipping of dogs on it will go on to the next step—the  
Brave New World 
.