Shire of Pingelly’s Save the Numbats law faces new hurdle after knock back by parliamentary committee

The Shire of Pingelly’s mission to save the numbats via a local cat containment law has been stalled by a parliamentary committee and now faces a battle in the Upper House.

The WA Joint Standing Committee of Delegated Legislation has disallowed the shire’s Save the Numbats Local Law and sent a 14-page letter demanding revisions, which the council is going to refuse.

The council’s stance means the law will be scrutinised by the 38-member Upper House’s Legislative Council who will have the final say.

Shire chief executive Andrew Dover said he had feared the JSCDL would object, despite the fact the Pingelly law was identical to a law passed by the Shire of Narrogin and which was not disallowed.

“We basically copied and pasted the Narrogin law which is currently in place, and they have allowed that,” he said.

“In 2016 they (Shire of Narrogin) said it was fine and again, when it was amended in 2022, it was still fine.

“The only difference is our name is on the top.

“However, this is quite expected; we were hoping it wouldn’t get this far but thought it might.”

The shire’s next step is to write to all the Legislative Council members explaining the background to their law and the harm uncontained cats cause to local wildlife.

Mr Dover said that in the meantime, the local law would stand in Pingelly and continue to be enforced.

“The thing which gives me hope is all the major parties have a formal stance that they support cat containment,” he said.

“Also, the Legislative Council has not heard a cat local law. Nobody has gone to this level.

“In theory, they could also tell Narrogin they should stop, but that would be saying they made a mistake all those years ago — and it was a McGowan Labor government which allowed it through.”

He said the campaign was not being waged at great cost to ratepayers.

“It’s not costing the shire a lot of money – we’re not using lawyers to a greater extent than we normally would, it’s just time and hassle,” he said.

“We kind of knew we would end up here.”

The shire’s Save the Numbats Local law came into operation on May 23, restricting pet owners to two cats which must be contained on the owner’s property.

Owners need a permit to keep more.

Numbats, or banded anteaters are an endangered species with WA’s only wild populations at Dryandra Nature reserve, in the Shire of Narrogin, and Perup Nature Reserve in the Shire of Manjimup.