Wednesday, 18 March 2026

 David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:19): (2422) My adjournment matter this evening is for the attention of the Minister for Agriculture. After meeting with the president of the Victorian Herpetological Society in June 2024, I raised an adjournment matter related to the regulations for enclosures for reptiles. I will not go over all the details, but the general essence is that the current rules mandating specific enclosure sizes are not fit for purpose. To put it in plain terms, taxpayers are currently funding enforcement officers to go to private homes and businesses and measure the size of enclosures and enforce rules that do not even make sense and are not based on the best scientific evidence for what would be a safe enclosure for the wellbeing of the animals. In her response the minister noted that stakeholder and community engagement would occur under the new proposed animal care and protection legislation to ensure that the regulations were fit for purpose. Well, that has not happened, and we still have authorised officers going around measuring enclosures, not checking if animals are healthy and well cared for but getting a tape measure out to tick off some paperwork against bad rules written years ago. One business that contacted my office said that five authorised officers rocked up on a Sunday. Maybe the Treasurer should pay attention here, because it seems like some agencies have plenty of money. Instead of fixing the problem of bad regulations, we seem to simply have more enforcement of the bad regulations – it is really not good enough. My request to the minister is to stop the raids and instead get to work on updating the regulations.