Why our future depends on taking biosecurity seriously
OPINION: When it comes to biosecurity, we often hear about the end of a response, but it’s the beginning that helps determine our success.
Biosecurity New Zealand says that more officers, detector dogs, and airport hosts, accompanied by an enhanced public awareness campaign, will bolster New Zealand’s biosecurity protections this summer.
Biosecurity New Zealand commissioner Mike Inglis says the frontline has been strengthened to ensure that threats like foot-and-mouth disease and brown marmorated stink bug do not cross the border and harm the country’s $54 billion primary sector.
72 new frontline officers have been recruited this year, including 24 recent graduated who will be based at Auckland Airport over the summer.
Detector dog handlers on duty this summer will increase nationwide from 30 to 39.
“The additional detector dog team capacity means we can make greater use of airport express lanes to speed up passenger flows,” Inglis says.
He says that opening express lanes to more travellers, combined with changes to the assessment of passengers for biosecurity risk, will result in more efficient processing.
“Our biosecurity controls are necessary to protect New Zealand,” Inglis says. “At the same time, we want to build on processing improvements over the past year that have resulted in nearly a 50% reduction in the time it takes passengers to get through biosecurity at Auckland Airport.”
He says the quickest way to pass through biosecurity screening is to avoid bringing food or other items that could pose a biosecurity risk.
He adds that travellers who complete a digital declaration will increasingly experience faster border processing.
The New Zealand Traveller Declaration can be completed 24 hours before departing for New Zealand.
Summer 2024/25 will also see 44 part-time biosecurity hosts at New Zealand’s four main international airports.
“The move follows successful trials last summer, using 19 hosts to welcome air passengers on arrival, help with queue management, and provide friendly biosecurity assistance,” Inglis says.
An enhanced public awareness campaign aimed at travellers to New Zealand kicks off this month.
Like previous campaigns, it will encouraged travellers to declare or dispose of potentially harmful items upon arrival and prompt them to think about the things they are bringing before they arrive.
Inglis says the more informed travellers are about New Zealand’s biosecurity rules before they visit, the less likely they are to bring risk items in.
“Those who don’t declare face an infringement fee of $400 or even prosecution,” he says.
According to the most recent Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey, farmer confidence has inched higher, reaching its second highest reading in the last decade.
From 1 October, new livestock movement restrictions will be introduced in parts of Central Otago dealing with infected possums spreading bovine TB to livestock.
Phoebe Scherer, a technical manager from the Bay of Plenty, has won the 2025 Young Grower of the Year national title.
The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand (FCANZ) celebrated the best of the best at the 2025 Fencing Industry Awards, providing the opportunity to honour both rising talent and industry stalwarts.
Award-winning boutique cheese company, Cranky Goat Ltd has gone into voluntary liquidation.
As an independent review of the National Pest Management Plan for TB finds the goal of complete eradication by 2055 is still valide, feedback is being sought on how to finish the job.
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