Govt's review into animal welfare laws is well overdue

Abigail took the opportunity to urge the Government to do their job of updating our outdated animal welfare laws.

Ms ABIGAIL BOYD (11:54): On behalf of The Greens, I indicate that we support the Statue Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022. It is largely uncontroversial. I will speak briefly to schedule 1.2 [2], which amends the Subordinate Legislation Act 1989 to extend the date of automatic repeal of three regulations while the Government is developing legislation that would replace the primary legislation under which they sit. One of those regulations is the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Regulation 2012, which sits under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act [POCTAA]. The Government has stated that because the Animal Welfare Bill 2022, if passed, will replace POCTAA, it is premature to remake the subordinate legislation. Not only has the Animal Welfare Bill not even been given notice of in this Parliament, the Government's review into animal welfare, which has led to the bill, is years overdue. I have serious doubts we will see the regulatory overhaul that we have been promised before the conclusion of the term of this Parliament.

The State Development Committee has been inquiring into the draft Animal Welfare Bill. As a participating member on the inquiry, it has become increasingly obvious to me that the Government has no intention to try to find a pathway through the policy disagreements. It will instead bring to this place a largely unamended bill that no side of politics is happy with, while throwing its hands in the air and crying, "We tried", leading to the outcome of a largely unchanged regulatory framework. While we support the Government extending the lifespan of the regulations—since we have no other choice in the absence of any other updated regulation—we do so with significant cynicism. We call on the Minister for Agriculture to do better than his predecessor and to get on with the job of updating our animal welfare laws.

The full debate can be found in Hansard, here.

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

NSW is missing out on tens of billions of dollars. By introducing a progressive coal royalty structure similar to the one in Queensland, we would have raised an extra $20 billion last year.

The NSW Government owns and controls, on behalf of the people of this state, the rights to the minerals and materials that naturally occur in NSW land.

Huge fossil fuel companies are only able to extract and sell these commodities with the consent of the State. It’s time they paid a fair price for that privilege.

The fossil fuel industry has made hundreds of billions of dollars out of their cosy relationship with governments. Granted permission to extract and sell coal, these large multinational fossil fuel corporations pay just over 7% in royalties back to the people of NSW – keeping the rest as mega-profits for themselves. These companies have a track record of taking more than their fair share and leaving communities suffering and stranded with poisoned groundwater, devastated landscapes and a stranded workforce when it suits their business models.

Globally, the hyper-inflation of fossil fuel prices driven by price-gouging opportunism and war profiteering from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has delivered record windfall profits to these already obscenely wealthy corporations. In the last year, NSW coal exports totaled over $70 billion dollars, but the people of NSW will only see about 7 cents in every dollar, or about $6 billion dollars of that amount.

Rather than going toward schools, hospitals and public infrastructure, billions of dollars went into the pockets of multinational mining corporations. The Greens believe there should be more money for schools and hospitals and less for mining billionaires.

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Govt's review into animal welfare laws is well overdue

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

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