van de Molen Tim; O'Connor DamienTIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato): Thank you Madam Chair. Just a couple of questions for the Minister first of all in relation to Mycoplasma bovis. We're making pretty good progress there and I think it's really encouraging to see the number of positive cases now being in the low single digits which is fantastic news. But I'm just wondering if you can give us perhaps a bit more of an update around the planned changes in the team there that I understand are coming up. There'll be obviously some impact to staffing levels but also if you could give an insight into those remaining cases—when they might likely be clear. Presumably there'll be some confidence around that date. It'd be nice to have an indication of that and then his view on the likelihood of new cases coming up with this season's spring milk in terms of bulk milk tests that are starting to flow in as calving is starting to get under way around the country especially in the North Island. So that'd be the first part. I appreciate time is getting limited on that side so I might add in the next question as well and that's in relation to the biosecurity risk of incoming mail levels. We've seen through COVID-19 a significant change in the way we operate as a society in a number of facets. One of those is a significant increase in the number of mail parcels or packages coming through the mail delivery system in particular from international locations which presents an increased risk. So I'm wondering what thought he's put into that and what consideration or action he is planning to undertake in relation to trying to mitigate any potential increased risk that may be flowing across our borders in relation to that one as well.Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister for Biosecurity): Thank you Madam Chair. Look I will take the opportunity to ask—and I just respect the I guess good summary that the member Barbara Kuriger who's the chair of the Primary Production Committee has put before us in terms of the discussion. I think it was a very productive one at the select committee. Can I just start at—Tim van de Molen asked questions around M. bovis and I have to say we have made great progress in this area. I have to thank the team. I have to thank the farmers and everyone who's made an adjustment. Those people who were caught with infected properties have had to do it hard. But we've done our best to compensate them properly and I hope that—well there's over 250 farms now that have been infected have been culled disinfected and have moved on and are now operating again and that's great. There will always be some glitches. We've learnt a lot but I think we're making progress. So I think we have four properties and in fact it may be less than that today because we're making great progress and that's good. So in terms of the flow on to other areas of biosecurity—and the first question is as we move to a lower number of properties clearly the number of people engaged can be reduced. Some of those people will be redeployed into other areas of biosecurity. In the area of parcels and of containers and scrutiny of those we'll be boosting that to ensure that we take the opportunity of having skilled people who may have picked up some knowledge of biosecurity systems that can be used elsewhere in our Biosecurity New Zealand and Ministry for Primary Industries responsibilities. So those adjustments will be occurring and we're having open dialogue with all the staff in that area. The bulk milk sampling—yes we do expect that there will be some positives picked up as we have stressed through the spring. Any cows that might have been in touch or in any way in contact with M. bovis then hopefully they will then show up through bulk milk samples. We will then go and test and investigate and hopefully get to a point of if necessary culling—hopefully they may not be infected herds. We do expect there will be some positive feedback and test results from that in the spring and we will be ready for that. Just then on the areas—because I know we have limited time. The good summary of I guess progress—everywhere I go around the country I think farmers are really looking forward to an exciting future. The fact that they've been able to operate through COVID has given them a new sense of I guess the value of it and if not importance responsibility to our economy as a whole. They've adjusted the way that they've operated and that's good. If we look to water and to emissions our goals in both water quality and in climate change I think they're up for it. What they need is some clear guidelines. People in Canterbury have been working through—actually it was the previous Government's guidelines. Environment Canterbury has been rolling out that working in some areas that are quite challenging—high levels of nitrates maybe the need for land-use change already. Then we have our proposals that complement that work that has been going on. I think clarity is what we need to roll out to farmers.Of course there'll be some areas of difficulty and challenge but I think most people understand the need to make progress in these areas. We will back it up with I guess what we'd call a branding exercise—that is accreditation and then acknowledgment of all that good work so hopefully we can get in market more value for everything that we do. I guess the collaboration that we've had with the sector leaders with farmers themselves on the ground I think puts us in a good place to seize the opportunities in a challenging COVID world to produce food that the world needs.