“Biosecurity is fundamental to the protection of our environment, our economy and our cultural and social wellbeing.”
But the Biosecurity Act is now 26 years old.
“The Act didn’t foresee many of the challenges of increased trade, increased visitor numbers and new diseases through a changing climate.”
In the past few years the primary industries have seen an increase in large biosecurity responses including Mycoplasma bovis, bonamia, myrtle rust and the Queensland fruit fly.
M bovis alone has cost Kiwi taxpayers excess of $200 million, more than a year since the Government decided – in a world-first – to try to eradicate the cattle disease.
Earlier this month the Ministry for Primary Industries apologised to farmers after two reviews pointed the finger at its poor handling of the M bovis crisis.
“Implementing the programme for M bovis exposed the clunkiness of the Act and its constraints on both action on the ground and compensation systems. Clearly, it’s overdue for an upgrade.
“We need an Act that’s more flexible and more appropriate.
“We need to learn from the M bovis experience and have better pieces of legislation as a result of it.”
O’Connor released the terms of reference that define the objectives and structure of the Act’s overhaul. The work will be led by Biosecurity NZ.
“They have started working with Maori, industry and others to upgrade the Act,” he said.
“We will look at every aspect of the Act, including compensation and funding.”
O’Connor said he has been working directly with Biosecurity NZ and Nait, to fix it and make sure it is fit for the future.
“Nait was brought in with good intent but has failed to deliver.
“Earlier this year I announced a package of suggested changes to Nait and Cabinet has now agreed to them.”
The proposed changes will improve tracing, tighten rules for handling untagged animals, improve the use of data, align penalties with other acts to reflect the seriousness of non-compliance and make changes to the performance framework for the organisation running Nait, he said.
The additional change, agreed by Cabinet, is to confirm the Crown owns Nait information that allows MPI to trace animal movements in the event of a biosecurity response or for food safety purposes and reduces the risk of any potential dispute between parties if the Crown ever chose to change the organisation responsible for Nait.
It follows changes made last year to improve the Nait scheme, including operational changes at OSPRI and some minor technical changes to the Act.
Farmers and the industry were consulted on proposals in late 2018 and the feedback was considerable and overall positive.
“Next week I will introduce an amendment bill to Parliament to improve Nait. The changes we’re making will take New Zealand a step closer to having the animal tracing scheme we need to keep our primary sectors and economy safe.”
The work will progress in two stages.
“We will be looking into issues that affect our economic outcomes first; with a view to public consultation being concluded by the end of this year. And we will be looking at issues that affect our environmental, social and cultural outcomes over a longer time frame with a view to public consultation in the second half of 2020.
“This longer time frame will give us time to ensure that we have canvassed these complex issues with those most directly affected by them before working with the wider public.
“We’ll be consulting widely with farmers, stakeholders and everyone affected to ensure that what we propose is sensible and pragmatic,” O’Connor said.
