Carter David: National Animal Identification and Tracing Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Carter David: National Animal Identification and Tracing Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 07 February 2012. Volume:677;Page:124. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (Minister for Primary Industries) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to follow the contribution from my colleague Shane Ardern and can I take this opportunity to thank him as chair of the Primary Production Committee for the work he did in bringing this legislation back to the House. Can I take this opportunity to thank all the previous members of the Primary Production Committee who worked through the legislation once it was finally presented to this House.  
The Hon Damien O’Connor made some valuable points about the length of time it has taken to get this legislation to this stage to the Committee of the whole House this evening. It was in my opinion something to congratulate a former Labour Government on that it started this process in 2004 not long after we had had a hoax scare of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak on Waiheke Island. But that scare did prove to us that as a Government regardless of which Government it was at the time we were ill-prepared if we had to deal with a real incursion.  
I want to thank the former Minister of Agriculture Jim Anderton for initiating a process because it has not been without some angst out there in amongst the farming community. When the National Animal Identification and Tracing system (NAIT) was first proposed most of the industry was accepting of the need for such a system. But there was very vocal opposition from Federated Farmers. That has taken a long time to dissipate. It is interesting to note today that as this bill passes through the Committee stage I understand that there will be only one party voting against it. I think we can all figure out why there was such vocal opposition to the original legislation and that probably almost ends up by pointing a finger at one particular personality within Federated Farmers. But frankly there is a new broom that has swept through that organisation and Federated Farmers now willingly embraces the concept of and recognises the need for the National Animal Identification and Tracing system.  
When the Hon Damien O’Connor listed a number of other countries that are well ahead of New Zealand in this regard one that he did not mention but one that really struck me when I had the opportunity of visiting that country was Uruguay. That is a country with a very underdeveloped agricultural system. It is using a lot of New Zealand technology now particularly in its dairying and it has already ensured that it has a complete tracing system within the cattle herd. That for me was a real eye-opener as to how exposed New Zealand was given the fact that we did not have this technology available and that could well have been used against us.  
There have been a couple of contributions so far talking about whether we have the latest technology and whether the bill has been designed to incorporate future technological advances. In my mind this is a little like buying a laptop. You can put off the day to purchase a laptop for ever because you know that next day there is likely to be a new model. So it is absolutely critical that we get on with this. Technology will develop and there will be opportunities to update it but the legislation has been written in such a way that it will be able to incorporate any such developments in the future.  
Mr O’Connor raised two other questions that I want to comment on. One was the need to make sure that NAIT for its completeness recognises the owners on the lifestyle farms. I recognise that as a challenge. It is something that NAIT Ltd will have to grapple with but I do point out that we already have a TB eradication and testing programme and already those lifestylers have the same obligations as a large commercial beef farmer in that regard. To my knowledge the level of compliance in both commercial and lifestyle farms is really very high.  
The final point I want to touch on was again raised by Mr O’Connor around the inclusion of sheep. The legislation being passed in Parliament today is only for cattle and deer. Having said that I have no doubt that at some time in the future sheep as a species will be included. Frankly it needs to be included if we are to have the full comprehensive system necessary in the event of a major outbreak of a disease. What I think will drive the inclusion of other species such as sheep is actually recognition by many good commercial farmers that there are major technological advances to be had by better identifying the good performers in your herd or in your flock. In that regard I take the opportunity to acknowledge the work that the Crown’s farming operation Landcorp is doing in this regard. Already despite the legislation its staff have involved themselves in the radio frequency ID tagging of cattle and they have involved themselves in the radio frequency ID tagging of sheep because they want to know about the productive traits of individuals. That gives them the ability to advance genetic gain to get higher productivity off their flock and higher productivity off their herds. I think it is that sort of technology that is becoming increasingly available to the more progressive farmers which frankly the less progressive farmers are going to have to catch up with and utilise if they want to keep up with the pace.  
Can I take the opportunity to thank the Committee for its near-unanimous support for this legislation. I certainly do acknowledge that it is work that was initiated by a former Labour Government under the auspices then of the Hon Jim Sutton.