Carter David: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Carter David: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 01 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:1806. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (Minister for Primary Industries) 
: 
 I want to thank that member Steffan Browning for his contribution on the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry report. Can I first of all say that yes as of yesterday the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry was finished with. We named a new organisation the Ministry for Primary Industries and I want people in the Chamber to take particular note of the word “for” primary industries. There was a branding issue once the Government had decided to bring three Government departments into one. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry already operated under a number of brands. We have taken the opportunity with the integration of the Ministry of Fisheries with the integration of the New Zealand Food Safety Authority and with the integration of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to come up with a new name that is all-embracing: the Ministry for Primary Industries. I want that new ministry to be absolutely focused on the New Zealand economy on the fact that the very base of this New Zealand economy is the agricultural and primary sectors of New Zealand. That organisation now has to be very focused on working with all aspects of the primary industries to make sure that we deliver the greatest potential to the New Zealand economy.  
I do note the member’s comments around organics and the fact that the Government does not now put a considerable amount of money into the organics industry. But the Government has done so and there are a lot of other aspects and farming systems here in New Zealand that if they want to promote themselves are expected to do so. At some stage it is necessary for this Government to cut the umbilical cord and say to the organics industry that if it is so successful if it is so successfully meeting the demands of New Zealand consumers and the demands of international consumers then it should be able to command a premium for its product and in commanding that premium for the product it is time it put some money back into the industry to allow it to expand and grow.  
Mr Steffan Browning shakes his head because he knows that despite considerable money going into organics the industry is not gaining significant premiums for its product either in New Zealand or elsewhere—or elsewhere. I will give you one example that should bring that home to Mr Steffan Browning even though he is a Green member of Parliament. Fonterra used to run an organics operation. A prior president of Federated Farmers Tom Lambie ran an organic dairy farm in South Canterbury. Fonterra said to him and to other organics suppliers here in New Zealand that it was not getting a significant premium for the product. It was uneconomic for it to continue to collect that milk and it abandoned the programme.  
Mr Steffan Browning made some very interesting comments around biosecurity and I say to every audience I get the chance to speak to that that is the greatest risk to the New Zealand economy. It is absolutely paramount that the Ministry for Primary Industries and the Government work hopefully with Opposition parties to deliver the most effective biosecurity systems we can at the border. Yes we did reduce some staffing when trade dropped off through the global financial crisis but I say to Mr Steffan Browning that those services at the border are cost recovered and it would be inappropriate to continue to charge other importers of goods excessive charges simply as a means of maintaining staff at the border.  
The other thing I stated Mr Steffan Browning is we must continually look at the way we manage our borders. Systems change threats change and technology changes and although everybody I speak to around biosecurity concentrates on the system they have at the airports because that is the system most people interact with the greatest risk is actually at our seaports and we need to continue to be vigilant there. We will have incursions occurring sadly—that is a fact. In fact we have had particular insects that have flown over from Australia and landed in New Zealand and no amount of X-ray technology at the border will stop it Mr Browning.  
What we do need when we get an incursion is a means by which we can ascertain how critical it is to any industry. That is the very reason we are engaged so significantly with industries around the Government-industry agreements. Then if it is an economic pest that we have the ability to control we must act and act quickly. The biggest lesson I have had in that regards the  
Pseudomonas syringae  
pv.  
Actinidiae 
 incursion in the Bay of Plenty where the Government has worked very very well with the industry realising we could not eliminate it once it arrived but working with the industry to find means by which that industry can move forward with varieties that are resistant to or tolerant of the disease. I want to take this opportunity in my closing comments to congratulate the kiwifruit industry on the way it has come through what were very very dark days for it. 
Report noted.