“We strongly object to livestock transporters potentially being penalised for actions that are beyond their control,” Leggett told the Primary Production Select Committee review of the National Animal Identification and Tracing legislation.
Drivers are being asked to do something well beyond their mandate as livestock transporters.
“It is proposed that truck drivers will be severely penalised with fines if they transport animals that do not have Nait tags.
“Truck drivers have no control over the Nait tagging system as getting those animals tagged is solely the responsibility of the farmers that raise them.
“We accept that animals must be traced to ensure their lifetime movements can be monitored in the event of any disease outbreaks but there have been long-standing problems with the Nait system that cannot be fixed by punishing the people who drive trucks.”
Leggett said livestock transporters are prepared to help improve Nait and have been involved in actions to positively change farmers’ behaviour around animal welfare and safe travel for stock.
“They are just not prepared to shoulder this blame and cost when clearly the person in control of the animals, the person sending them on the transport and the person receiving them at the other end, have primary responsibilities.
“This is especially so given the legislation changes mean that livestock transporters would be issued $400 fines for transporting untagged animals when clearly no untagged livestock should ever be presented for transport if the Nait system was working properly.
“We want livestock transporters removed from the penalty schedule in this Bill,” Leggett said.
Visually checking for tags is impossible because it is sometimes dark when animals are loaded, the number of animals and the speed with which they are loaded and the method used to load and unload.
“We strongly object to livestock transporters potentially being penalised for actions that are beyond their control,” Leggett said.
Federated Farmers and Dairy NZ also addressed committee.
“We see no value in transporters having to become policemen,” Feds Nait spokesman Miles Anderson said.
Adding transporters to Nait will complicate an already clunky and hard to navigate system.
“We urge the Government to enable Nait to be implemented to achieve its purpose.
“Support is far more effective than additional layers of complexity.”
While farmers recognise they have ultimate responsibility for stock traceability, concern remains about Nait’s usability.
“Implementation and education on Nait are lacking. We know a system that actually works would mitigate most of the non-compliance issues.”
And Feds disagrees with the Crown owning Nait data.
Anderson questioned why the Crown wants ownership when it has access to the data now.
DairyNZ said the Crown’s data grab is a step too far.
“As a major shareholder in Nait and a partner in the Mycoplasma bovis programme, DairyNZ has a genuine interest in this legislation,” biosecurity manager Liz Shackleton said.
“While DairyNZ is largely supportive of the proposed changes to Nait we have serious concerns about data security and want to send a clear message that we are firmly opposed to any attempt to take ownership of farmers’ Nait data.
“The Crown does not need to own the data to manage the risk,” Shackleton said.
“DairyNZ supports the minister and appropriate Government agencies having access to data for the purposes of the Act but believes that anything further would constitute a significant privacy breach.”
