12. Question No. 12—BiosecurityMARK CAMERON (ACT) to the Minister for BiosecurityQuestion No. 12—BiosecurityMARK CAMERON (ACT): Point of order Mr Speaker. I understand having read Standing Order 164—I have registered my interest in a farm. I have read Standing Order 166 carefully and before asking this question I would like to make it clear to this House that my farm has been affected by the M. bovis programme. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Question No. 12 Mark Cameron.12. MARK CAMERON (ACT) to the Minister for Biosecurity: How is the effort to eradicate M. bovis tracking and is it now in a management phase?Hon MEKA WHAITIRI (Associate Minister of Agriculture (Animal Welfare)) on behalf of the Minister for Biosecurity: It is first important to note that this is a world-first plan to eradicate the cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis in partnership with industry. Over three years ago the Government DairyNZ Beef + Lamb New Zealand and industry partners made a bold decision to go hard and commit to a 10-year programme to eradicate M. bovis to protect our most important sector and the economy. We know from overseas experience that if the disease was left to spread throughout our national herd it would significantly affect dairy production and animal welfare. As part of this programme we are also focused on protecting farmers' welfare. Over the last 18 months processes have been improved with farmers' feedback taken into account. This has resulted in quicker compensation payouts more support and shorter turn-around times for farms under movement restrictions. We know this is a tough time for farmers and we don't underestimate the effects on them but we are committed to working with industry through this process. It is important to note that the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) continue to evaluate the programme and identify lessons to improve our efforts in undertaking New Zealand's largest biosecurity response. We are still in the delimiting phase of finding the remaining pockets of infection and then we'll move fully into long-term surveillance ensuring that there are no undetected clusters of the disease still out there.Mark Cameron: What is being done to support farmers after the Otago University study found that the Government's M. bovis programme inflicted significant and lasting trauma on farmers whose stock were culled"?Hon MEKA WHAITIRI: We understand that some researchers from Otago have been studying farmers' experience in the M. bovis programme. We believe this work is still under way and have not received a formal report. The programme understands that the farmers surveyed were affected in the early stages of the programme. We know the M. bovis eradication effort has been challenging for farmers involved but has substantially improved over the course of the programme. We have listened to a lot of farmer feedback and our programme staff have been very focused on farmer welfare including getting farmers through the process faster with more support and shorter turn-around times for farms under movement restrictions. Alongside our partners we have improved the compensation process with claims paid as quickly as possible. We and our partners DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb New Zealand are continuing to work hard to support the wellbeing and recovery of those impacted by M. bovis.Mark Cameron: How will he respond to the finding: "A dominant theme of the research was the intrusive impractical and inhumane nature of … MPI's … programme in which local knowledge expertise and pragmatism were ignored in favour of inefficient bureaucratic processes"?Hon MEKA WHAITIRI: As I referenced in my primary answer to the question we acknowledge the challenge that farmers were under. We have made significant improvements to the programme.Mark Cameron: Is he confident that the process will improve and farmers will be more supported in the future than they have been?Hon MEKA WHAITIRI: Yes."