Senate debates Documents

Animal Welfare; Order for the Production of Documents


Mehreen Faruqi

Mehreen Faruqi NSW, Australian Greens

4:22 pm

I seek leave to amend general business notice of motion No. 1304.

Leave granted.

I move the motion as amended:

That—

(a) there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia, by no later than Thursday, 17 February 2022, all animal welfare incident reports held by the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment which were generated by abattoir management personnel and/or on-plant veterinarians at export-registered abattoirs between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021.

(b) if the Senate is not sitting when the documents are ready for presentation, the documents are to be presented to the President under standing order 166.

Jonathon Duniam

Jonathon Duniam Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries

4:23 pm

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Slade Brockman

Slade Brockman President

Leave is granted for one minute.

Jonathon Duniam

Jonathon Duniam Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries

The government will not oppose this motion. The government will aim to meet the requested deadline, noting that the reports will first need to be centrally collated by the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, and in addition the reports will require assessment and redaction to ensure that private information is not unreasonably disclosed and/or that any disclosure does not impact on any ongoing regulatory consideration by either a state or territory agency or indeed the department.

Question agreed to.