MPI defends cost of new biosecurity lab
The head of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) biosecurity operation, Stuart Anderson, has defended the cost and the need for a Plant Healht and Environment Laboratory (PHEL) being built in Auckland.
She says this has happened even though the sector has had to deal with some terrible weather events including Cyclone Gabrielle.
"This 12% growth is absolutely amazing," she says.
The MPI Situation Outlook Report for Primary Industries (SOPI) released just before Christmas showed that kiwifruit exports this year will be worth more than $3.4 billion - up from $2.8 billion a year ago.
At the same time, applea and pear exports will make just over $1 billion. These figures are somewhat astonishing given that so much fruit has been under pressure from the after effects of Gabrielle and other adverse weather events, and in normal circumstances, these figures would likely have been higher.
Grigg points out that to ensure that this growth continues, it is important that parliament gets the regulatory settings right, removes red tape, gets consistent rules right across the country and listens to the grass roots industry.
"My job is to get out to the regions and meet with the various horticulture sector groups and take their feedback to parliament so that my colleagues and other ministers are aware of the needs of the sector I am charged with championing," she says.
Grigg says while each of the sector groups have their own individual issues, in essence they are quite similar to each other.
Labour is a common concern and that is why the Government had made change to the RSE scheme.
Access to water storage are high on the priority list, she says, which is why a review of the National Policy Statement on freshwater is being undertaken.
The other issue she flags is one of access to capital for the sector and points to the inquiry into the banking sector as one means of addressing this.
"My job is to keep advocating for the growth of the sector and, so long as we here in the parliament get it right and the sector has the ambition and fortitude, then the sky is the limit," she says.
