CATTLE (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

5.33 p.m.

The Minister for Health (Mr Chua Sian Chin): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

Hon. Members of this House will recall that in November 1964, this House passed the Cattle Bill which subsequently became the Cattle Ordinance, 1964 (No. 15 of 1964). The Cattle Ordinance has since proven to be an extremely effective legal instrument in attaining our objective of raising our environmental standards.

Today, cows and buffaloes roaming unchecked on our arterial roads, traffic circuses and rampaging private property are conspicuous by their absence.

All cattle sheds are now licensed and are situated in well-defined and demarcated "non-restricted" areas. These measures have in turn solved all the outstanding problems caused by stray cattle in respect of health and traffic control. The cattle nuisance has, once and for all, been dealt with by the Ministry of Health armed with an effective piece of legislation.

However, with the rapid and intensive urbanisation and physical development that are taking place around us today in Singapore, other sub-standard environmental health conditions in certain slum and squatter areas have now been brought into focus. The unfavourable environmental health conditions in such areas are intensified by the rearing of domestic animals, the most outstanding of which is the rearing of pigs, or what are legally termed "swine". These animals are often to be found being reared in pockets of slum areas in insanitary pig-sties and these pigs are allowed to stray and roam at will. These animals defecate all over the place and create appalling insanitary conditions in the areas and their surroundings.

To make matters worse, such places are usually situated just adjacent to newly-developed housing estates, both public as well as private, and even in the immediate vicinity of the precinct of our Paya Lebar International Airport. The roaming about of these animals from their insanitary pig-sties into the more developed and hygienic environment of the neighbouring areas has in the past brought numerous cries of protest and complaints from the public. It is now time for us to introduce more effective legislation in order that the rearing of these pigs is controlled so that the nuisances caused by them are eliminated, just as it was in the case of the cattle nuisance.

The present law governing the rearing of pigs, which is in the form of by-laws, was made under the repealed Municipal Ordinance, as is the case of most of our old laws. The concepts embodied in this law are now outdated and have been overtaken by events around us.

I therefore propose to deal with this outstanding environmental health problem of insanitary piggeries and the roaming of pigs in a similar fashion as in the case of cattle. This, in short, is the purpose of this Cattle (Amendment) Bill.

The Bill is not aimed at any specific group of people, nor is it intended to cause hardship to any one. Let me make it clear that it is certainly not the purpose of the Bill to prohibit the rearing of pigs. Indeed, it seeks to ensure that farmers breed pigs in well-defined areas and in as sanitary a manner as it is possible to do and without creating environmental health hazards, as well as being a nuisance to the public.

Specifically, the Bill seeks to extend the existing definition of "cattle" in the Cattle Ordinance by including swine as well. This will enable the authorities to apprehend the stray pigs that are a public nuisance and turn them over to the slaughter-house to be turned into meat for distribution among our charitable homes in Singapore.

In order to institute effective enforcement action when necessary, a new section 5A is enacted to empower the Commissioner of Public Health to delegate his powers to any public officer and, with the approval of the Minister, to any officer of any statutory board to deal with the problem.

Certain consequential changes are also made in the definition of "officers" so as to bring the Cattle Ordinance in line with the Environmental Public Health Act, 1968 (No. 32 of 1968). There are also amendments of a purely formal nature such as "the Legislative Assembly" to "Parliament" and "the State" to "Singapore" and so on.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move. Question put, and agreed to. Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.

The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Mr Chua Sian Chin].

Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.

5.43 p.m.