Damien O’Connor: NZ united on global trade
When it comes to international trade, politicians from all sides of the aisle are united, says Labour's trade spokesman Damien O'Connor.
“We care about the primary sector, our rural communities and New Zealand’s economy, so we are hands-on on biosecurity,” says O’Connor, who is also the Minister for Biosecurity.
He says that the principle of the Government Industry Agreements (GIA) is good – where the Government and industry share the decision-making and costs involved with an incursion.
But he points out that two key livestock players – B+LNZ and DairyNZ – are not signed up.
“We have been having respectful, free and frank discussions about how to manage this disease.
“Political scare-mongering, in an attempt to sabotage our response effort, is not helpful but it does not distract me or the industry from our important work in managing Mycoplasma bovis.”
O’Connor was responding to National’s agriculture spokesman Nathan Guy, who accused the Government of breaching GIAs between the previous Government and 16 primary sector organisations on future bio-security incursions.
The GIA framework sets out that the industry should meet about 12% of the cost to eradicate this disease. But Guy says O’Connor has confirmed publicly that he wants the industry to stump up 40% to 50% of a bill that’s estimated to cost between $500 million and $870 million.
O’Connor says M.bovis is one of the most significant disease outbreaks in the history of New Zealand’s primary sector.
“It may be the most challenging biosecurity issue the Government and primary sector will ever deal with. But deal with it we will and we’ll do it together.
“It can’t be underestimated how crucial the first couple of months of an outbreak are and the previous Government did absolutely nothing – they didn’t act on the incursion and they didn’t help prevent it by upgrading the Biosecurity Act or fixing NAIT.
“Since then we have made the difficult decisions, which is our job.”
The new Government has set up checks at Cook Strait, started bulk milk testing, decided to cull all infected properties, set up a dedicated recovery team on the ground, boosting the compensation claims team, and recently funding $85 million to continue the response with $11m of that from industry.
O’Connor says soon there will be a plan to hopefully eradicate Mycoplasma bovis.
“At present, we are working shoulder-to-shoulder with the industry to determine a fair partnership for the Mycoplasma bovis response – that includes who will pay what.
“Eradication has always been the aim as long as it’s possible because New Zealand’s primary sector deserves every last chance to be rid of this disease now and into the future.
“Any option – rapid eradication, phased eradication, long-term management or stopping Government assistance will cost money and it must be a fair deal for all.”
O’Connor says warrants are out for the collection of items in relation to the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak.
“If we find the pathway, and someone has acted illegally, they will feel the full force of the law.
“With any decision, big changes are needed and I’ve started making them, setting up Biosecurity New Zealand, which allows MPI’s 900 staff to focus on their core responsibilities. A biosecurity intelligence team will also help keep more threats off shore. I will overhaul the Biosecurity Act and ensure NAIT is fit for purpose – and farmers will need to improve their NAIT record-keeping and on-farm biosecurity.”
