Niall,
Irrespective of the stage that discussions are at with DEC, you cannot put a time on when things will actually happen. Nor can you be assured that all that has been “promised” will, in fact, eventuate. They always leave themselves an out – ministerial approval or the need to alter the legislation. All that is needed is for something untoward to crop up at the last minute and it can be a case of there goes the shooting match. So to be stating what will happen is, unfortunately, somewhat premature at this stage. The things you mention have been agreed to in principle but not etched in stone. There are a few more hoops to go through yet before we are home and hosed.
As has also been pointed out, expect the unexpected to be included. And expect not to like it. There is invariable a barb attached to getting that which we seek.
The reality at this point in time is that we need to wait and see what actually eventuates rather than make predictions based on suppositions.
Mike
Thanks for that Mike. At the time that Mike, Simon and I were talking to DEC (then CALM), we were fairly confident that we had designed, in collaboration, a fairly good system - and I was assured just before the regs became law, by Gordon Wyre, that WA would be seen to have the "best reptile keeping system in the country". We had had little contact with them during the 12 previous months (I spent an experimental 12 months in NSW in 2002, which lead to my eventual move here in 2005), so when we saw how the bureaucrats had disfigured what we thought was an agreed-upon framework, it came as a shock.
The entire system is dysfunctional, and loaded with such stringent and onerous requirements of keepers, that many, if not most, indidviduals will come iunder scrutiny for such things as late returns (this is guaranteed by the requirement for 3-monthly returns for new keepers), for not keeping the bodies of deceased animals in the freezer until the Dept tells you you can dispose of it, or for some other simple mistake or oversight. The costs are enormous for keepers, relative to other states, the regulations themselves are clumsy in the extreme, and they fail to achieve what we thought was one of the main objectives, to encourage the prompt captive breeding of the initial wild-caught stock. The stupid and costly 'Farmer's Licence', and the restriction on sale of progeny only to dealers, ensured that breeding became an expensive and impractical proposition for most people.
The system has been built entirely around the notion that NO REPTILE KEEPER IN WA should expect to be trusted by the department (unfortunately this attitude appears to be infecting regimes in other states). If you have a serious interest in reptiles in WA, you should expect to be heavily scrutinised by that bureaucracy for the duration of your involvement.
Having said all that, I had a history of about 40 years of reptile involvement in that state, as a keeper in the days prior to 1970, then a Reg 16 holder for a period of time before the regulations came into force, and as a dealer for some time before moving to NSW. I had no trouble with CALM, (except being warned about not disposing of the bodies of dead animals before being granted permission by the Dept), I simply found the requirements for 3-monthly returns (for Reg 16, Keepers and Dealers) onerous and frankly quite pointless.
The thing that these Departments, Australia-wide, just don't get is that more prescriptive they make the laws, the more people will just say 'stuff it, I'll do what I want to do without getting into the system.' So many people have said to me, about the proposed Reptile Keepers Code of Practice here in NSW, that they'll simply get rid of their licensed animals, drop out of the system and continue to fly under the radar. I don't blame them if the Code heralds a new and more intrusive approach from the Department.
Sorry for rambling... this is a topic that deserves a thread of its own.
Jamie.
(and I usually finish at 4pm..but was late in 
