The organisation’s science and policy manager Catharine Sayer said maintaining the health of NZ’s deer herd and protecting it from biosecurity risks was critical to the industry, prompting DINZ to explore the benefits of entering a GIA.
She said livestock industries, including DINZ, had been fleshing out with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) what a GIA would look like for the sector.
“We have been using foot and mouth disease (FMD) as a high impact scenario of what would happen if a GIA was in place at the time of an outbreak.
“At the same time we have been working together to significantly improve the country’s readiness in the event that a FMD outbreak did occur,” Sayer said.
GIAs cover pest and disease readiness and response activities and to date 14 industries had signed GIAs including the pork, forestry and several major horticultural industries.
The arable sector, having been told by MPI that it couldn’t rely on government alone to build an effective biosecurity fence, was currently working though the processes of forming an industry-wide entity to collectively enter an agreement that was expected to include all related stakeholders, including feed manufacturers and millers.
GIAs were founded on the Government’s position that it was fair for industries to help fund activities from which they benefit and that “where you pay, you have a say”.
For several years MPI had been encouraging primary industries to enter GIAs.
Sayer said for the deer industry this would mean making decisions about pest and disease readiness and response activities in partnership with government, while being prepared to pay a share of the costs involved.
“If we choose not to participate MPI has signalled it may forcibly recover the cost of responses from the industries that benefit,” Sayer said.
“Non-participating industries could also find it more difficult to persuade the Government to deliver them dedicated biosecurity services.”
Entering a GIA involved industry bodies signing a common GIA Deed.
“First, the industry needed to show it had properly consulted with those it represented and that it could fund industry commitments made as part of the agreement.”
Sayer assured deer industry levy payers they would be consulted before a decision was made.
“DINZ will later this year provide levy-payers with more details about how entering into GIA would affect the deer industry and will seek their views on whether doing so is in its interests.”
She said other livestock farmer bodies would be doing the same while organisations representing red meat and dairy processors had already been consulted and were close to making a decision.
“Effective biosecurity is critical for all New Zealanders, but particularly for industries like ours that are on the front line where deer farmers and processors look out for and manage biosecurity risks daily.
“At an industry level DINZ invests some of its levy income on biosecurity, assisting in the eradication of bovine TB, implementing the NAIT traceability system and engaging with MPI to improve deer industry biosecurity,” Sayer said.
“Potentially a GIA would improve the management of the biosecurity risks that face the deer industry and give us more say in how those risks are assessed and managed.”
But she said that would depend on the detail that was still being negotiated between the livestock sector and MPI.
