Animal Welfare Act 1999

Savings provisions

Schedule 1: Provisions applying in respect of National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee and National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee

You could also call this:

"Rules for the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee and National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee"

The National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee and the National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee are two groups that help with animal welfare. You can call them advisory committees. These committees have members who are chosen for their jobs. The Minister can remove a member if they are not doing their job properly. A member can also resign from their job by telling the Minister in writing.

When a member leaves their job, the empty spot is called an extraordinary vacancy. This vacancy must be filled in the same way the original member was chosen. The committee can still make decisions even if there is an empty spot. Each committee must have a deputy chairperson who is chosen by the committee members. The deputy chairperson can do the chairperson's job if the chairperson is not available.

The committees can have subcommittees to help with specific tasks. These subcommittees report back to the main committee. The main committee decides how the subcommittees work. The committees have meetings to make decisions. The first meeting is organised by the Minister, and after that, the committee decides when and where to meet.

For a meeting to happen, at least 6 members must be present. The chairperson is in charge of the meeting, but if they are not there, the deputy chairperson takes over. If neither of them is there, the members choose someone to be in charge for that meeting. Decisions are made by a majority vote, and the chairperson has a special vote to break a tie.

You can find more information about how the committees work in section 61 and section 67 of the Animal Welfare Act 1999. Committees can also have meetings over the phone or by other means, as long as everyone can hear each other and vote. Members are protected from being personally liable for things they do as part of the committee. The committee can make its own rules about how it works, and members can get paid for their work. The Director-General must help the committee with administrative tasks so they can do their job. You can learn more about how members get paid in the Fees and Travelling Allowances Act 1951.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM51982.


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202: Expiry of section 201, or

"When part of the Animal Welfare Act stops being a law after a certain time"


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Schedule 2: Provisions applying in respect of accreditation and accredited reviewers, or

"Rules for becoming and being an animal welfare reviewer"

1Provisions applying in respect of National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee and National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee Empowered by ss 61, 67

1Interpretation

  1. In this schedule, advisory committee means the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee or the National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee.

2Extraordinary vacancies

  1. Any appointed member of an advisory committee (including the chairperson of the advisory committee) may at any time be removed from office by the Minister for disability affecting performance of duty, bankruptcy, neglect of duty, or misconduct, proved to the satisfaction of the Minister.

  2. Any appointed member of an advisory committee (including the chairperson of the advisory committee) may at any time resign his or her office by giving written notice to that effect to the Minister.

  3. If the chairperson or any other appointed member of an advisory committee dies or resigns or is removed from office, the vacancy so created must be treated as an extraordinary vacancy.

  4. An extraordinary vacancy must be filled in the manner in which the appointment to the vacant office was originally made.

  5. The powers of an advisory committee are not affected by any vacancy in its membership.

3Deputy chairperson

  1. An advisory committee must, at its first meeting after the commencement of this Act, and at its first meeting in every subsequent year, elect 1 of its members to be its deputy chairperson.

  2. The deputy chairperson may at any time, without resigning office as a member, by written notice to the chairperson resign office as deputy chairperson.

  3. Unless the deputy chairperson sooner resigns from that office, or is appointed to be the chairperson of the advisory committee, or vacates his or her office as a member of the advisory committee, he or she holds the office of deputy chairperson until the appointment of a successor in accordance with this clause, and is eligible for reappointment.

  4. If the deputy chairperson is appointed to be the chairperson of the advisory committee, or ceases to be a member of the advisory committee, he or she thereupon vacates the office of deputy chairperson.

  5. If any person who is for the time being holding office as deputy chairperson vacates office as a member of the advisory committee, an election to fill the vacancy in the office of deputy chairperson must be held at the first meeting of the advisory committee held after the vacancy on the advisory committee has been filled.

  6. Where the office of deputy chairperson becomes vacant in any other case, the advisory committee must elect 1 of its members to fill that vacancy as soon as practicable after its occurrence.

  7. During every vacancy in the office of chairperson, or while the chairperson is for any reason unable to perform the functions, powers, and duties of the chairperson, the deputy chairperson has and may exercise all the functions, powers, and duties of the chairperson.

  8. No acts done by the deputy chairperson acting as the chairperson may in any proceedings be questioned on the grounds that the occasion for the deputy chairperson so acting had not arisen or had ceased.

4Subcommittees

  1. An advisory committee may from time to time appoint such subcommittees as the advisory committee thinks fit.

  2. Each subcommittee appointed by an advisory committee must inquire into, and report to that advisory committee on, such matters within the scope of that advisory committee's functions as are referred to the subcommittee by that advisory committee.

  3. Each subcommittee must consist of 2 or more persons (of whom at least 1 must be a member of the advisory committee by which it is appointed).

  4. Every subcommittee appointed under this clause is subject in all things to the control of the advisory committee by which the subcommittee was appointed, and may at any time be discharged, altered, or reconstituted by that advisory committee.

  5. The chairperson of a subcommittee appointed under this clause must be appointed by the advisory committee by which the subcommittee was appointed unless that advisory committee otherwise determines.

5Meetings

  1. The first meeting of an advisory committee must be held at such time and place as the Minister, in each case, appoints.

  2. Subsequent meetings of an advisory committee must be held at such times and places as the body or its chairperson from time to time appoints.

  3. At all meetings of an advisory committee the quorum necessary for the transaction of business is 6 members.

  4. At all meetings of an advisory committee, its chairperson presides if he or she is present.

  5. If the chairperson is not present, or if there is no chairperson, the deputy chairperson, if present, must preside.

  6. If neither the chairperson nor the deputy chairperson is present at the meeting, or if there is no chairperson and no deputy chairperson, the members present must appoint 1 of their number to be the chairperson for the purposes of that meeting.

  7. Every question arising at a meeting of an advisory committee must be determined by a majority of the votes cast by members present at the meeting.

  8. The chairperson or other person presiding has a deliberative vote, and, in the case of an equality of votes, also has a casting vote.

  9. No member of an advisory committee is entitled to be present or vote or otherwise participate in the capacity of a member of the advisory committee at any part of a meeting of the advisory committee where the member has a direct or indirect pecuniary interest in the matter being considered.

6Assent to resolution without a meeting

  1. A resolution in writing signed, or assented to by letter, facsimile, electronic mail, telegram, cable, or telex message, by at least 6 members is as valid and effectual as if it had been passed at a meeting of the advisory committee duly called and constituted.

Notes
  • Schedule 1 clause 6: amended, on , by section 70 of the Animal Welfare Amendment Act (No 2) 2015 (2015 No 49).

7Teleconference meeting

  1. The contemporaneous linking together by telephone or other means of communication of a number of members of an advisory committee, being not less than the relevant quorum provided by clause 5(3), whether or not 1 or more of the members is out of New Zealand, is deemed to constitute a meeting of the advisory committee; and all of the provisions of this schedule apply to that meeting, if the following conditions are met:

  2. notice must have been given, by telephone or other means of communication, to every member of the advisory committee for the time being entitled to receive notice of a meeting of the advisory committee; and
    1. each of the members taking part in the meeting by telephone or other means of communication must—
      1. be linked by telephone or such other means for the purposes of the meeting; and
        1. at the commencement of the meeting acknowledge, to all the other members taking part, the member's presence for the purpose of a meeting of the advisory committee; and
          1. be able, throughout the meeting, to hear each of the other members taking part; and
            1. on any vote, individually express his or her vote to the meeting.
            2. A member must not leave a meeting held under subclause (1) by disconnecting the member's telephone or other means of communication unless the member has previously obtained the express consent of the chairperson or other person presiding at the meeting. A member is conclusively presumed to have been present, and to have formed part of the quorum, at all times during the meeting by telephone or other means of communication unless the member previously obtained the express consent of the chairperson or other person presiding to leave the meeting.

            3. A minute of the proceedings at a meeting held under subclause (1) is sufficient evidence of those proceedings, and the observance of all necessary formalities, if certified as a correct minute by the chairperson or other person presiding at the meeting.

            8Protection of members of advisory committee

            1. No member of an advisory committee is personally liable for any act done or omitted by the member or the committee in good faith in the course of the operations of the committee.

            2. Any liability that would but for this section lie against a member of an advisory committee lies against the Crown.

            9Procedure

            1. Subject to the provisions of this Act, an advisory committee may regulate its procedure in such manner as it thinks fit.

            10Fees and allowances

            1. An advisory committee, and each subcommittee appointed by an advisory committee, is a statutory board for the purposes of the Fees and Travelling Allowances Act 1951.

            2. There may be paid, out of public money to the members of an advisory committee, and to the members of any subcommittee appointed by an advisory committee, remuneration by way of fees, salary, or allowances and travelling allowances and travelling expenses in accordance with the Fees and Travelling Allowances Act 1951, and the provisions of that Act apply accordingly.

            11Administrative assistance

            1. The Director-General must, in the case of an advisory committee, provide such administrative assistance to the advisory committee as may be necessary to enable the advisory committee to carry out its functions.