Dog Fence Act Amendment Bill 1989
p1175, 17 October 1989, LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
Second Reading
Received from the House of Assembly and read a first time.
The Hon. BARBARA WIESE (Minister of Tourism): I move:
That this Bill be now read a second time.
The Dog Fence Act 1946 provides for the maintenance of the dog-proof fence. The body responsible for the maintenance and inspection of the fence under the Act is the Dog Fence Board. This Bill seeks to make two changes to the institutions or persons that can nominate members of the board. At present one member is nominated by the Vertebrate Pest Control Authority. The responsibilities of that authority were taken over by the Animal and Plant Control Commission under the Animal and Plant Control (Agricultural Protection and Other Purposes) Act of 1986. This Bill formally recognises that change. It replaces the right of nomination of the Vertebrate Pest Control Authority with that of the new commission.
At present a second member of the board is nominated by the Minister from a panel selected by local dog fence boards created under the Act. On 4 March 1986 the then Minister of Lands, the Hon. R.K. Abbott, undertook to give that right of nomination to an appropriate incorporated association established to represent local dog fence boards. The Far West Dog Fence Boards Association Incorporated has since been incorporated for that purpose, and this Bill seeks to give that body a right of nomination in place of the existing right of the Minister. The Bill also makes one consequential amendment to the Act and corrects an unrelated cross-reference in section 41 (2) of the Act. I seek leave to have the detailed explanation of clauses inserted in Hansard without my reading it.
Leave granted.
Explanation of Clauses
Clause 1 is formal.
Clause 2 provides for commencement on a day to be fixed by proclamation.
Clause 3 amends section 6 of the principal Act. Section 6 deals with the membership of the Dog Fence Board. Clause 3 substitutes the Animal and Plant Control Com¬mission for the Vertebrate Pests Control Authority as the body entitled to nominate one member of the board. It also specifies the Far West Dog Fence Boards Association Incorporated as another body entitled to nominate one member to the board, in place of the existing right of the Minister to nominate one such member from a panel selected by local dog fence boards.
Clause 4 is a consequential amendment to section 11 of the principal Act. As the right of local boards to nominate to a panel is being replaced by the direct nomination to the Dog Fence Board by the Far West Dog Fence Boards Association Incorporated under clause 3, the reference in section 11 of the principal Act to local boards is no longer necessary.
Clause 5 amends an incorrect cross-reference in section 41 of the principal Act. This change is unrelated to the amendments in clauses 3 and 4.
The Hon. PETER DUNN secured the adjournment of the debate.
[Sitting suspended from 5.56 to 7.45 p.m.]