Statutes Amendment Bill

Members, we come now to Part 42. This is the debate on clauses 174 to 176, “Amendments to Wildlife Act 1953”. The question is that Part 42 stand part.

Thank you for this. Section 175 is about the notice for open season for game, and subsection 15(5) that’s being amended here says, “At any time during an open game season declared under subsection (4), the notice published in respect of that season may in like manner—(a) be amended; or (b) be revoked and be replaced by a new notice.” So my question is: why do we need to replace “during”—so, that’s during an open game season—to “before”, to include “before” as well? The rest of the subclause is about changing a notice, so why would you be changing a notice before the notice period? I’d understand it if this clause was about initiating a notice, but it’s not about initiating a notice, it’s about changing a notice. So I’m just not quite sure how the sequencing of this works and why it is that you need to add in the “before” to the “during”. That’s one question. I’ll let you answer that.

Yes, this is actually just clarifying because the notices currently can only be issued once the season starts. Basically, depending on what the notice is, the notice could have clarifications about where a person can go or what they can do, so it seems reasonable to be able to issue a notice before the season starts so that a person understands what their requirements are instead of waiting till season opening or opening day and then finding that they’re actually breaking rules and didn’t know about it. So, that’s why we’re making that change.

Thank you to the Minister for giving that explanation of the earlier notice to start with. That makes sense. Then, at section 176, in replacement section 66A(3) of the Wildlife Act—there’s an (a) and (b)—we can see the change in the bill is that “(3) A person commits an offence and is liable … to the penalty … if [they]—(a) contravenes subsection (2); or”—and this is the new part—“(b) wilfully gives false information or provides false evidence under subsection (2).” The introduction here is of this wilful false information, so my question to the Minister is: have there been problems with people giving false information that has led to this amendment?

That’s a really good question. I thank the member for asking it. I would say that no, that’s not the reason for the amendment. The reason for the amendment was because that offence was actually accidentally removed during the Wildlife (Powers) Amendment Act 2017. There is an issue with when rangers turn up and then they get given the wrong information—purposely too—by some people who are trying to evade, especially if they’re poaching. We’re actually just putting back in an offence that was accidentally removed back in 2017, just to give those rangers a bit more power and a bit more teeth.

Part 42 agreed to.

Schedule 1 agreed to.

Schedule 2 agreed to.

Clauses 1 and 2