Tirikatene Rino: Urgent Debates — Biosecurity Incursions—Report of Auditor-General into Ministry of Primary Industry’s Preparedness and Responsiveness 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Tirikatene Rino: Urgent Debates — Biosecurity Incursions—Report of Auditor-General into Ministry of Primary Industry’s Preparedness and Responsiveness 
[Sitting date: 12 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8407. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Deputy Speaker. The Auditor-General’s report on biosecurity is a damning report on this Government and it reveals that New Zealand is at a major risk of a major biosecurity breach. What that means is that our pa defences are weak and they are weak because of the slash-and-burn policies of this Government and the dismantling that it has done of our biosecurity defences in the continuous restructurings that have occurred with the Ministry for Primary Industries. 
People at home might watch reality shows like  
Border Patrol 
 and they will see our hard-working customs and biosecurity people. They always make the bust; no one or no thing ever gets through. But that is not the reality because the reality is that they do not always get their man and that has been accentuated by the fact that this Government has been cutting funding slashing front-line staff and failing to properly prepare for an incursion. 
I want to focus on that last point because the Associate Minister for Primary Industries in her speech quoted from the Auditor-General’s overview. She was putting all the positive spin that she could on the fact that the Ministry for Primary Industries does respond to incursions and its responses to incursions have taken precedence. Then she went on to say: “No border control is 100% effective so it is important that New Zealand is prepared to deal with incursions effectively.” Then she stopped. But if she had carried on with that paragraph she would have read that the Auditor-General said: “However it is my view that MPI is under-prepared for potential incursions for some high-risk organisms. Responding to incursions has taken precedence over preparing for the potential arrival of other pests and diseases. Not enough priority has been given to planning. Many response partners who have worked with MPI and its predecessors believe that stronger response capability is also needed.” What that shows is selective reading by the Minister. 
The Auditor-General’s report is very clear that the Ministry for Primary Industries is underprepared and it is not putting enough priority into planning and working with the various industry groups. That could not be highlighted more than by the risk that has been identified with our risk of an incursion of foot-and-mouth disease. The ministry is woefully underprepared for a foot-and-mouth incursion. The Auditor-General estimates that a foot-and-mouth outbreak could cost the country $13 billion. That is a huge impact on our economy and that is why we must keep our pa defences strong. But you cannot do that—you cannot have your warriors defending your pa—when you have fewer and fewer warriors in place. 
What have we seen with this Government? The numbers: we have had 91 biosecurity officer positions cut between 2008 and 2012 since National has been in office. The number of sniffer dogs—those little beagle dogs that go sniffing around the airports—has dropped particularly at Auckland Airport where it is down to 13. Although the Government may talk about “We’ve got a little technology introduction here. We’ve got incremental progress happening here and there.” the fact of the matter is that if you do not have front-line people manning these key positions—and we are a huge country—we are very exposed. The farm gate is wide open in the breeze and this Government is just letting all potential incursions diseases pests and other nasties come in. They could be invading our borders because of the woeful record of this Government. 
I also want to go on and make some remarks around Psa because the member who spoke for the Government last talked about whatever incursions occurred during the Labour Government but I think we need only mention three letters “Psa” and what absolutely devastating damage that has done to our kiwifruit industry. If we just look at researchers from Lincoln University this is really interesting— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Order! 
RINO TIRIKATENE 
: It is devastating our industry. I did not realise I had a short call. We commend this report and we urge the Government to take proper action and give proper resourcing to our biosecurity systems. Kia ora.