Nait to get tough with farmers

The new penalties are in response for calls from the industry to improve the Nait scheme, Agriculture and Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor says.
They are the next step to create the animal tracing scheme New Zealand needs to keep its primary sector and economy safe.
The changes will tighten rules for handling untagged animals, improve the use of data and align penalties with other laws to reflect the seriousness of non-compliance.
They follow changes made last year to improve the Nait scheme, including operational changes in OSPRI.
“I have heard the calls from industry for common sense changes to make Nait an effective business and biosecurity tool.
“The proposed changes will ensure there is proper oversight of the agency managing the scheme and gives the Government the ability to deal with any performance issues that affect biosecurity,” he said.
While Nait compliance has improved in recent months more work is required to improve animal tracing.
The existing penalties were targeted at small-scale offending and were capped at $10,000 for individuals and $20,000 for corporates.
“This is a relatively small cost and does not act as a disincentive to offend,” O’Connor said.
The Ministry for Primary Industries has been cracking down on non-compliance and last year 97 farmers were fined for breaches of the scheme. The biggest fine was $300.
Cabinet will introduce the changes to the Parliamentary select committee process about August with legislation not likely till early next year.
Meanwhile, efforts to get more farmers fulfilling their Nait obligations have ramped up with a big focus on education.
“Compliance is important but we should also make it easy and this means we need to do more work to ensure we have a world-class traceability system that is future-proofed.
“When there is willful non-compliance with the Nait scheme the entire sector is put at risk.
“This is unacceptable and I know MPI is focusing on holding those people to account,” O’Connor said.
Beef + Lamb says it supports the changes.
They are sensible and the industry-good farmer body is looking forward to working with O’Connor and MPI to push the changes and improve Nait, its technical policy manager Dr Chris Houston said.
“Beef + Lamb is pleased to see the Ministry for Primary Industries listened to feedback from the consultation process and have proposed sensible changes to the NAIT scheme.
“We’re looking forward to working with the Government and MPI on progressing and implementing these changes to improve NAIT,” he said.