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Dissenting Report by Australian
Greens
There is no doubt that the outbreak of equine influenza was
crippling for the horse industry in Australia and
devastating for owners and riders. It is clear that Australia must
be better equipped financially and administratively to deal with such disease
outbreaks in future.
The Greens believe that compulsory registration of all
horses is necessary and would provide a national database which would
enhance the capacity of animal health authorities to act in the event of a
horse disease outbreak.
The Greens do not oppose the collection of a levy but we do
not share the optimism of the government that all
equity issues will be taken care of in the regulations. The devil will be in
the detail. Without seeing the regulations, we remain to be convinced that the
concerns of community recreational owners and riders regarding costs and how
onerous the collection of the levy will be, will be addressed in an equitable
way.
Whilst the majority report says, “It is too early to condemn
the proposed legislation without consideration of the regulations that will
follow”, we argue that it is too early to support the proposed legislation
without consideration of the regulations that will follow. The Greens requested
that the government provide to the Committee the draft regulations before we
finalised the report or dealt with the legislation but the Government declined.
Therefore we do not support the passage of the
legislation at this time and will reconsider
it, if and when, the government has finalised the regulations. Such regulations
must be accompanied by the framework for, and date of implementation, of a
national registration system.
We note that the Government has provided draft regulations
to a number of other pieces of legislation before Committees have finalised
reports on the legislation and should have done so on this occasion.
Senator
Christine Milne
Deputy
Chair Rural and Regional and Transport Committee
Senator
Rachel Siewert
Australian
Greens Senator
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