Roger Jaensch, Acting Minister for Primary Industries and Water,
The Tasmanian Government takes animal welfare extremely seriously, which is why we significantly strengthened the Animal Welfare Act in 2015 and increased penalties across the board and improved the powers of Animal Welfare Officers.
The Government does not support the use of pronged collars and sought to ban them in 2015 based on advice from the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (AWAC).
Unfortunately the move to ban was opposed in the Upper House and subsequently withdrawn with the then Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council, Vanessa Goodwin stating; ''The Government doesn't want this amendment to be lost and then not have the opportunity to pursue this banning of pronged collars down the track''.
In November last year Guy Barnett, the Minister for Primary Industries and Water, wrote to the Chair of the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee asking that the Committee consider improvements to the Animal Welfare Act to better protect animals, particularly dogs.
The Government is expecting advice from AWAC and DPIPWE in the near future and Tasmanians can be assured that this Government will continue to take action based on the advice of experts to maintain high animal welfare standards.
The RSPCA has a representative on AWAC and we expect the pending advice to address the use of pronged collars.
