Committees
Joint Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation
Tabling
Hon Anthony Spagnolo (10:09 am) : I am directed to present the first report of the Joint Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation titled City of Bayswater Keeping and Control of Cats Amendment Local Law 2024.
(See paper 493.)
Hon Anthony Spagnolo: The report I have just tabled advises the house about the issues resulting in the Joint Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation recommending that the City of Bayswater Keeping and Control of Cats Amendment Local Law 2024 be disallowed. The City of Bayswater Keeping and Control of Cats Amendment Local Law 2024 was made by the City of Bayswater on 22 October 2024, published in the Government Gazette on 8 November 2024 and came into operation on 22 November 2024.
Clause 4 of the instrument imposes controls on cats that roam off their owner's property, and clause 5 inserts a modified penalty to punish any breach of those controls when a cat is in a public place. These clauses are inconsistent with and not authorised or contemplated by the Cat Act 2011 and are therefore inoperative and void. They also go beyond the scope of the Cat Act 2011, such that they contain matters that are inappropriate for subsidiary legislation. As a result, these clauses offend the committee's terms of reference 10.6(a) and (d).
A previous attempt by the City of Bayswater in 2002 to impose very similar controls on roaming cats was prevented by the committee's immediate predecessor. This instrument represents the city's use of a different means to achieve its original intent, thereby attempting to circumvent the previous committee's processes and its well-known position on local laws, by attempting to control cats in public places and contain cats generally. As clauses 4 and 5 implement the main purpose of the instrument, and given the city's defined attempt to circumvent committee processes, the committee recommends that the whole instrument be disallowed.
I commend the report to the house.
