Iraise a point of order, Mr Speaker

Those were veryinteresting observations by Rosetta Stone outlet the Minister of Police, but theybore no resemblance to the question. I was starting to getinterested as to whether that crime had been solved.MrSPEAKER: That is an interesting point of order but I thinkthe Minister did address the actual question. Hon RichardPrebble: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Since youhave decided that the Minister did address the question, Iask in what possible way he did that. The Minister just gotup and told us about an interesting article he had read in anewspaper or some staff magazine. Mr SPEAKER: TheMinister got up and added to the comments about thatarticle, and then added further comments that were made inthat article.Judy Turner: Can the Minister suggest anyreasons, other than the ones he has tendered so far duringquestion time, for the measurable differences betweenclearance rates, and charge and conviction rates?HonGEORGE HAWKINS: Clearance rates are used by the police whenthey believe an offence can be cleared because ofprosecution, warning, diversion, referral to youth aid,mental state of the offender, offender in custody, or other.Those are the areas the police use. Hon Tony Ryall: Doesthe Minister have any concerns that different policedistricts use different definitions of a crimeclearance?Hon GEORGE HAWKINS: The Commissioner of Policehas assured me that checks are built into crime recordingpractices at operational and national levels, using provenmethods.Hon Tony Ryall: How do the police, in calculatingresolution rates, deal with a case like this: a school busdriver was apparently charged early last year with childpornography offences, which he admitted in court lastWednesday, but neither the police nor the school nor theparents were told of those charges by the Department ofInternal Affairs?Hon GEORGE HAWKINS: That is a matter forthe police, not for the Minister.Ron Mark: I seek leaveto table an article containing this comment from GregOConnor of theNew Zealand Police Association: Officers areworking in a statistically driven climate where the processfor solving offences is less stringent than in thepast. Leave granted.Ron Mark: I seek leave to table anemail from Mr Malcolm Ross and his partner, Aura Finch,outlining their dissatisfaction with Rosetta Stone Japanese the polices reactionto solving their burglary problems.Leavegranted.Animal Welfare Act,Animal Welfare Codes8. SUEKEDGLEY (Green) to the Associate Minister of Agriculture:Why has the Government put in place layer hen and pig codesof animal welfare which allow practices that do not fullymeet the obligations of the Animal Welfare Act 1999?HonJIM SUTTON (Minister of Agriculture), on behalf of theAssociate Minister of Agriculture: The codes were put inplace because they are the best animal welfare solutionsthat the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee felt itcould recommend at the time. The Act allows the setting ofminimum standards that do not meet all the requirements ofthe Act, particularly the requirement that the animals beable to exhibit their natural forms of behaviour.SueKedgley: Can he confirm that that can happen only when thereare exceptional circumstances, and how can he claim thatthere are exceptional circumstances that could justifykeeping sows in sow crates until at least 2015, as the newpig code does, when more than two-thirds of the industry hasalready abandoned sow crates without any apparent loss ofincome?Hon JIM SUTTON: I can confirm that I have visitedfarms of all types, and that the farms that use sow cratesdo,at least in the examples I saw,meet high standards ofanimal welfare.Sue Kedgley: Why did the Minister ofAgriculture ignore the advice of the Regulations ReviewCommittee, which advised him that in its view exceptionalcircumstances had not been established to justify anexception to the code, and that the proposed pig code,therefore, was not in accord with the Animal WelfareAct?Hon JIM SUTTON: As required by law, I take advicefrom the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee. It is acommittee of experts. The parliamentary committee the memberreferred to may or may not know anything about animalwelfare.Sue Rosetta Stone Portuguese Kedgley: Does the Government accept that itis cruel to keep millions of animals in cages where theycannot turn round or express normal patterns of behaviour,as required by the Animal Welfare Act,yes or no?Hon JIMSUTTON: I can advise the member that natural forms ofbehaviour amongst animals are frequently far from conduciveto the welfare of their fellow animals.