Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on my concern about the imminent closure of the RSPCA adoption centre at Tweed Heads, which is unfortunately due to close on June 30. It is heartbreaking for this to occur after 30 years of operation. I would like to highly commend the RSPCA for the outstanding work they do within the community. I was very privileged to be a volunteer inspector with the RSPCA many years ago when I was a police officer and I greatly enjoyed working with the people of the RSPCA and investigating animal complaints in the area.

I understand this closure is due to a drop in donations. Last Friday, I attended the Tweed Heads RSPCA with the state shadow minister for the North Coast, Walt Secord, and the Labor candidate for Tweed, Ron Goodman, to call upon the New South Wales state government to help the adoption centre and provide the funding so the service can continue. We called on the Tweed Nationals MP, Geoff Provest, to make immediate representations to his state government. It is the state government that is responsible for animal welfare in New South Wales. Unfortunately, the nearest RSPCA centres are in Coffs Harbour and Brisbane. The Tweed Heads RSPCA has been operating in the region for more than 30 years and providing adoptions for 27 years. It adopts about 300 cats a year, 100 dogs and dozens of rabbits, ferrets and birds. Under the closure, six staff will be made redundant. So this is a very urgent case. We have been calling on the New South Wales state government to step in and help them.

It is also important to note that, with the centre closed, it would put a huge amount of pressure on the Tweed Shire Council and the animal facilities they provide. I call on the state government to urgently fund the organisation. Let's keep the RSPCA at Tweed Heads open.