25 Years of Legislative Theatre

Every decade, a new promise.
Every decade, the same collapse.

Western Australia has spent 25 years performing the same act —
🎭 Ministers proclaim “modern law.”
🕳️ FOI proves no enforcement system ever existed.
🔁 The cycle restarts.

Symbol Guide:

🎭 Legislative promise or announcement
🕳️ FOI-documented void (no implementation)
🔁 Pattern repeats

What follows is not history. It is evidence arranged chronologically.

🎭 2001–2002: The Foundation Myth

🎭 2 August 2001 – “Australia’s Most Modern Legislation”

Kim Chance (Agriculture Minister, Gallop Labor Government)

“The new Animal Welfare Bill will protect animals by prohibiting cruel, inhumane and improper treatment; regulate the use of animals…”

Animal Welfare Bill 2001 introduced to replace 1920 Act
Promised to be “the most modern animal welfare legislation in Australia”
13,500 citizens petitioned to ban circus wild animals—government answer: new legislation will solve it

📄 Hansard – Animal Welfare Bill 2001

🎭 2002 – Animal Welfare Act 2002 Passes

What was promised:

Modern inspector system
Regulation of animal use
Systematic enforcement framework

📄 Animal Welfare Act 2002 (Full Text)

🕳️ 2025 FOI Reality Check

FOI2025-008 (FOI1) documented:

∅ DPIRD initially claimed no inspection records exist (Section 26)
✖ Internal Review later admitted records exist but refused release
∅ No evidence of systematic data collection since 2002

📄 FOI2025-008 Internal Review Decision

Structural finding: The 2002 Act created legal powers on paper.
Twenty-three years later, government cannot produce a coherent enforcement record.

🎭 2006–2010: The Six-Inspector Experiment

🎭 November 2006 – “Big Investment”

6 full-time General Inspectors appointed (2-year funding)
Animal Welfare Branch established
Promised systematic monitoring of feedlots, saleyards, ports

📄 State Budget 2011–12 Reference

🕳️ 2008 – Funding Expires, System Collapses

Two-year funding ended June 2008
No renewal; Barnett Liberal-National government took over Sept 2008

🎭 23 September 2010 – Lisa Baker’s Revelation

Lisa Baker (Labor, Maylands):

“In 2007 we had a six-person inspectorate. Today there is one permanent inspector.
The Premier has confirmed livestock welfare is not being monitored.”

📄 Hansard – Inspector Collapse (2010)

🕳️ 2010 – “Data Not Available”

Minister Castrilli’s admission:

“Information is presently not available for the years 2008, 2009 and 2010.”

📄 Hansard – Lynn MacLaren Questions (2010)

🕳️ 2025 FOI Reality Check

FOI2025-008 shows:

2022–2025: Only 70 facility inspections across WA
Average: 23 per year, covering thousands of sites
No historical data from 2008–2022

📄 FOI Document 1 – Inspection Summary

Structural finding: The 2010 “data not available” excuse stretched for 15 more years.

🎭 2011–2015: The RSPCA Substitution Strategy

🎭 25 May 2011 – “Doubling” Announcement

Funding “more than doubled” to $1.6m/year
6 inspectors promised again
RSPCA funding doubled to $500k/year

📄 Government Media Statement (2011)

🕳️ 24 October 2013 – RSPCA Excluded from Livestock

Minister Ken Baston:

Government funding excludes commercial livestock enforcement.
RSPCA must raise donations for livestock cases.

20,000+ cruelty reports received
Only 14 routine inspections
Only 8 prosecutions

📄 Hansard – RSPCA Exclusion (2013)

🎭 21 October 2015 – Political Persecution

Mark McGowan (Opposition Leader):

“A Liberal cabinet minister has backed this McCarthyist jihad being conducted against the RSPCA.”

RSPCA: 6,113 investigations, 22 prosecutions, 100% success
Government launched Select Committee attack

📄 Hansard – RSPCA Persecution (2015)

🕳️ 2025 FOI Reality Check

FOI2025-017 shows:

∅ No evidence the 6 inspectors ever worked systematically
∅ No training standards
∅ No performance data

📄 FOI2025-017 Notice of Decision

🎭 2017–2023: The Designated Inspector Saga

🎭 2017 – DI Bill Introduced

DI given power to enter facilities anytime
Minister to appoint

📄 Standing Committee Report – DI Powers Unnecessary (2018)

✖ 2018 – Committee Verdict

“Unfettered powers of entry are unnecessary.”
Bill shelved.

🎭 2020 – Linda Black Review

52 recommendations for modernization
Identified DPIRD’s conflict of interest
Called for inspector training standards + independent authority

📄 AWA Review 2020

🎭 2021 – Government Response

“Supports all recommendations.”

📄 Government Response

🕳️ 2025 – Zero Implemented

Amanda Dorn (2025):

“More than four years…none have yet been enacted.”

📄 Chief Animal Protection Officer Bill (2025)

🎭 2023 – Trespass Law Passes

Created DI role (limited to intensive facilities)
Doubled trespass penalties: $24,000 + 2 years prison
AG John Quigley: “Animal advocates will no longer be able to use lack of transparency or lack of government oversight as a reason for their illegal actions.”
Minister’s media release claimed: “Designated Inspectors will proactively monitor compliance and build public confidence in animal welfare standards.”

📄 Government Media Statement – Trespass & DI Powers (2023)
📄 DPIRD FAQ – “Designated Inspectors” (2023)

🕳️ FOI Reality (FOI1, May 2025)

DPIRD Notice of Decision (30 May 2025):

∅ No Standard Operating Procedures for Designated Inspectors
∅ No training materials, records, or evaluation documents
∅ No proactive inspection data held from 2022–2025, other than a single ad hoc spreadsheet created for the request

📄 FOI2025-008 Notice of Decision – 30 May 2025

Structural finding:
The 2023 media release and FAQ presented a total illusion — a functioning, professional compliance regime with trained inspectors and proactive monitoring.
The first FOI decision exposed that none of it existed.
What was sold as transparency was, in fact, theatre.

🎭 2022–2025: Oversight Theatre

🎭 2022 – AWAC Announced

Promised to provide independent expert advice
To supervise inspector training and competency standards
To deliver annual reports to the Minister on welfare oversight

📄 AWAC Terms of Reference (2021)

“The AWAC will advise the Minister…on the development and implementation of standards relevant to training and competency assessment of appointed inspectors under the Act.”
(AWAC Terms of Reference, Section 2.1)

🕳️ 2025 – AWAC Void

Confirmed as a non-statutory body with no legal authority
No minutes, no reports, no oversight documents ever produced
FOI 2 (2025-017 companion request) confirmed DPIRD holds:
- ∅ No AWAC meeting records
- ∅ No DI supervision or training standards
- ∅ No risk assessments or annual reports
Section 26 notice issued: “Documents do not exist.”

📄 Hansard – AWAC Non-Statutory Status (2025)
📄 FOI Decision – Oversight & Risk (FOI 2)

Structural finding:
AWAC functions as a façade of independence — a non-statutory advisory shell designed to simulate oversight while producing no enforceable output.
Its Terms of Reference promised supervision of inspector training and annual reporting; FOI 2 revealed that neither has ever occurred.
AWAC’s existence is symbolic, not functional — consultation without record, advice without consequence.

🎭 2025 – Petition for Reform

4,043 citizens demand new Animal Welfare Bill

📄 Parliament Petition (2025)

🕳️ Oversight Collapse

OIC: admits no allocation policy, backlog 375 days avg
Ombudsman: refuses jurisdiction over OIC
Net result: jurisdictional void

📄 OIC Clarification
📄 Ombudsman Refusal (2025)

🔁 Structural Patterns (2001–2025)

1️⃣ Pattern 1 – The Empty Promise Cycle

(Each decade repeats the same announcement of “modernization”)

2001: “Australia’s most modern legislation.”
2011: “Six full-time inspectors” announced.
2021: “Modernization” commitments after the Linda Black Review.
2025: 4,043 citizens still petitioning for the same reforms.

Meaning:
Every generation renews the same language of reform, but never the mechanisms to realise it. The rhetoric evolves; the vacuum remains.

2️⃣ Pattern 2 – The Institutionalized Regulatory Facade

(The appearance of oversight replaces the act of oversight)

2007–2008: Six-inspector program collapses after two years.
2010: Minister admits inspection data “currently not available.”
2023: Designated Inspector system legislated.
2025 FOI: Zero SOPs, zero training records, zero inspection data.

Meaning:
Enforcement exists only as a concept. Each “new system” inherits the same emptiness — procedure without practice, title without function.

3️⃣ Pattern 3 – Accountability Substitutes

(When real oversight is politically or structurally impossible)

2010 → 2025: RSPCA funding used as a substitute for government enforcement.
2015: RSPCA politically targeted after successful prosecutions.
2022: AWAC established as a non-statutory advisory body.
2025: FOI confirms AWAC never discussed DI oversight since 2023.

Meaning:
Responsibility is displaced onto entities that cannot compel change.
When oversight succeeds, it is punished; when it fails, it is praised.
This is not collapse — it is design.

Structural Conclusion

This is not a history of failed reforms.
It is a pattern of performance:

Announce a “modern” framework
Generate headlines with funding or committees
Create oversight bodies without power
Never implement enforcement
Repeat

For 25 years, Parliament performed.
FOI proved nothing ever followed.

The Animal Welfare Act 2002 was a foundation myth.
The six-inspector scheme was a two-year stunt.
The DI system was a cover for trespass penalties.
The AWAC was an empty shell.

What remains is not reform, but an archive of absence.

Archival Note
All claims are verbatim from Hansard, Acts, or FOI.
All absences are FOI-verified.

What Parliament promised, FOI disproved.
This archive preserves both—side by side.