Falloon AndrewANDREW FALLOON (National—Rangitata): Thank you Madam Chair for the opportunity to take my first call in the committee stage of the National Animal Identification and Tracing Amendment Bill. I do want to acknowledge the Minister both for taking the opportunity to respond to some of our questions in the committee this morning but also for coming down to Ashburton and attending the public meeting that was attended by between 800 and 1000 people which is certainly the largest public meeting that I recall in Ashburton in recent times.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Did he need you there to get a crowd?ANDREW FALLOON: He did indeed. He did indeed. I'd also like to acknowledge Nathan Guy who's come down to Ashburton on many occasions and quite recently to also meet with a number of affected farmers who have infected properties restricted place notices and also notices of direction. I do want to start my contribution this morning by speaking to Part 1 and specifically provisions relating to animal movement. I'm in the I guess unfortunate position of representing an electorate that is probably more than most affected by Mycoplasma bovis. The vast bulk of the properties that are infected or are under restricted place notices are either in Southland or in mid-Canterbury and I've certainly dealt with a great many number of farmers over the last 12 months who have been negatively affected by M. bovis and many of the concerns that they have relate to animal movement.They've been incredibly affected by it not just by the length of time that it's taken to move to culling but then when it comes to animal movement in many cases stock have been moved off at a very slow rate of just a few dozen a day in some cases. So it takes in some circumstances many weeks for farms to be depopulated. So I have to ask the question to the Minister: why has it been so slow? Why has it been that once that decision's made to cull on a farm the process is so slow for removing stock? In many cases these are farmers who have been without an income since January of this year. They can't receive full compensation payments until they are depopulated and in many cases have gone through the 90-day stand down. I do now want to turn to the search and surveillance provisions in this bill. Like my colleagues on this side of the Chamber I do have concerns about the scope and the nature and particularly the process these provisions are being brought in by. But one area that the bill is silent on and that I'd like the Minister to perhaps comment on as well is around where this bill makes no comment.At the start of this year I caught up with a farmer just south of my electorate actually in South Canterbury and he was one of the first affected by Mycoplasma bovis and it hit him very hard. His farm was very clearly under surveillance. When I arrived at the property there was a police car parked just down the road and so he was very clearly under surveillance for a very long period of time. But unfortunately every evening that police car would depart. So although he was under surveillance during the day there was nobody keeping an eye on his property during the evening. It won't surprise many members of this committee to know that that farmer was targeted repeatedly by burglars and other thugs in the community.I do want to say though that the fortunate thing is that that is the exception rather than the rule. Most communities around New Zealand and particularly in my part of the world of mid-Canterbury and South Canterbury have pulled together very well in response to Mycoplasma bovis. The community haven't thrown a lot of blame around. Most of the farmers who have been affected have done the right thing they've told their neighbours and they have contacted agencies like the Rural Support Trust for support. I do just want to come back to that meeting though that Damien O'Connor had in Ashburton because one of the big questions that was asked at that meeting still hasn't been answered unfortunately. The question that was put to him was: At what point will the Government say that eradication is no longer possible and that we have to move to management?" If the tens of thousands of stock that are currently going through the process of being culled doesn't work and if the billion dollars that was allocated to spend on the response isn't enough at what point does the Government say that we move from eradication to management? I'd really like an answer to that question. He was asked that question several months ago. I still haven't heard an answer from him. My constituents still haven't heard an answer from him. This response from the Government in many cases has been bungled and it's been far too slow."