Parliament's patience snapped this week as Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen failed to show up to a long-awaited joint committee briefing on wildlife protection - a meeting he had personally scheduled.

Instead of progress on critical reforms to end cruelty on lion farms and other abuses, MPs were met with silence from the Agriculture Ministry and a vapid, outdated presentation from the Environment Department. One MP called the no-show "criminal". Another asked: who benefits from this delay - because it's certainly not the animals.

At what was supposed to be a joint briefing of the parliamentary environment and agriculture committees on Tuesday, 24 June, an official from Agriculture admitted they had no report to present.

Although the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) did present a report - "Progress on the Implementation of the Report of the High Level Panel on Captive Animals" - it contained little more than a rehash of information already in the public domain and references to existing and outdated statutes.

It was harshly criticised by MPs for its lack of detail. The report also failed to address critical questions raised during a session earlier this month at which the National Society for the...