IN HIS day job with the Ministry for Primary Industries Geoff Gwyn’s responsibilities lay in his position readiness and response director.
That was until the cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis was notified in July last year.
“That kind of changed my day job when the M bovis response kicked in.”
As the enormity of the exotic disease incursion emerged Gwyn’s time quickly became absorbed virtually full time into the response.
Both his working and personal spaces were affected and his life was turned around, much like an infected-property owner.
The biggest challenge he faced he likened to sitting in the dentist waiting room.
“Nobody likes that. We know it’s a horrible experience.”
But that was the reality of the first few months.
From July last year to this May MPI and the industry worked tirelessly to gather enough information to make an informed decision for the ongoing future of the response.
“We had to get enough information, knowing we didn’t have all of it, to make the best decision possible given the money ($800 million) we were talking.
“It meant we were not able to give farmers the answers they wanted as we worked through whether eradication was an option.
“We just couldn’t get that certainty to farmers who, rightly so, were concerned about their families and their livelihoods.
“That was a really tough time for me.
“Like the dentist waiting room it was a shit of a place for all those caught up in it.
“There was robust criticism.
“It was tough for me and my teams.
“Everyone working in the response is human and they are passionate about what they do, well aware of the public expectation.
“The human element of that accountability is really important but it does have an impact.”
For the past 14 months Gwyn has started his day at 6am, spending the first two hours on emails and paperwork then back-to-back meetings, many involving travel around the country, from 8am till the last meeting ends.
“And many of my team members are working those same hours – 60 hours a week, six days a week.
“There’s a period of time at the expense of family and personal life when that (robust criticism) is difficult to take.
“We are only a human being, only in this job to make a difference and very passionate about what we do too.”
Gwyn spent 25 years as a police officer in Auckland, Hawke’s Bay and Wellington.
He’s spent time in Afghanistan and Timor training police but nothing quite prepared him for the impact of the last 14 months.
MPI was not a sector he was familiar with when he made the career move eight years ago.
“But it was a sector really easy to see the importance of and, for me, while it’s been really tough this past year, it’s been a fantastic career move.”
Over the eight years with MPI Gwyn has been in a variety of roles, starting out as a border manager before taking on the director’s role of the joint board of management systems.
He went on to set up the intelligence, planning and co-ordination directorate of MPI before readiness and response were brought together across the board including food, biosecurity, primary production and trade systems.
He now runs all the responses of MPI and readiness that includes Government Industry Agreement (GIA) partners.
The critical point for the M bovis response came in May with the decision to proceed with phased eradication.
“Whether everyone agrees or disagrees it brings certainty and that’s been the fundamental difference.
“We now have certainty and what we are doing is trying to keep every option open.”
The joint decision making with the industry, including DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb NZ, dairy companies, Federated Farmers, the Veterinary Association and industry investment from DairyNZ and B+LNZ made a huge difference at a crucial time.
“The industry buy-in made it a truly joint venture around the decision-making and I can honestly say that industry senior officials knew as much as I did and with that same information the decision was unanimous.
“That industry buy-in really did help confidence and to give encouragement.
“I believe it (phased eradication) was a realistic decision. There’s no 100% guarantee but with the information we had we knew we had a good chance here.
“I feel very comfortable I have the best skilled people in all our response teams providing us with absolute scientific advice.”
The results of the spring bulk milk testing are reinforcing the eradication chance.
“The results we have in so far are indicating to us that there’s no large cluster or network out there that we haven’t found.
“We are very much pursuing eradication and everything we are seeing to date indicates we are on the right track.
“But it’s not finished yet.”
North Island farmers can expect their spring milk testing results on November 1 and the South Island on November 15 with MPI scheduled to present a formal progress report of the eradication programme to Cabinet in December.
Gwyn said the response has been a huge learning curve for the whole country.
“We’ve learnt along the way as a country about how our biosecurity systems don’t mitigate risk perhaps as good as they should.
“It’s raised some risk behaviours and opened a lot of discussion about the resilience of our systems and its management practice.”
Dairy farming will change, in particular for calf rearing, graziers and stock yards.
“I’m not saying these are all stuffed but it’s opening up conversations. They all still have a place but may look different.”
Gwyn said the vehicle for change needs to be driven by farmers and the industry.
“Industry comes up with the game plan and we might be able to come up with the regulatory framework to make it work.”
Under Gwyn’s direction a permanent M bovis directorate is being established with recruiting for a director under way.
But tough as it’s been over the last 14 months Gwyn has no desire to leave MPI.
“Setting up a permanent M bovis directorate is the only way I will get my day job back to business as usual.
“I’m not running away and saying good luck.
“I will sit alongside but it will get me off full time M bovis.”
And hopefully free up time to spend with his family, including four children aged four to 17 years.
“I am looking forward to some more relaxing time with family.”
