Ms Deirdre Kelly:

I referred in my opening statement to the funding assigned to us in the budget to conduct a significant awareness campaign in the early part of next year. We are planning that campaign. In that context, the approach we will take is to move away from a dog control approach and towards a more responsible dog ownership approach. It will take the form of building and supporting individuals who wish to own dogs to be more responsible in that ownership and consider things like vet bills down the line and health issues that may come up for the dog. If a person gets a young dog, the likelihood is the dog will have several years of life. We are trying to build the capacity of people who are considering owning dogs to think about those kinds of things, including, in particular, the legislation-based responsibilities in respect of having the dog under effectual control in public areas and all that. We want to ensure they think about these things in the lead-up to a decision to have a dog. It will be coming at it from that perspective and then building on that, trying to support people in a positive way because dogs enrich people's lives. They are companions. It is a good thing to own a dog. The approach we will take to the campaign is that there are positive aspects to owning a dog as well as responsibilities. It will be a substantial campaign over a period of time and will involve a lot of stakeholders. We have the same approach as the Senator with regard to building awareness and education. We want to ensure people who own or plan to own dogs know what their responsibilities are and what is expected of them in the context of their lives but also the lives of the dogs.