O'Connor Damien: Urgent Debates — Biosecurity Incursions—Report of Auditor-General into Ministry of Primary Industry’s Preparedness and Responsiveness 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
O'Connor Damien: 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:8396. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR (Labour—West Coast - Tasman) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of a matter of urgent public importance 
. Last week we received from the Auditor-General a report that was perhaps one of the most alarming things to be tabled in Parliament over the last 12 months. This report in brief said that we are not prepared for an outbreak of foot-and-mouth in this country. There will be many members including the Speaker himself I am sure—[ 
Interruption 
] 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! Members please show some courtesy. 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: —who are aware of the significance of our primary industries and of the constant threat to each and every one of those sectors through foot-and-mouth. The Auditor-General’s overview said: “Our country is more dependent on biosecurity than any other developed country. Biosecurity is fundamental to New Zealand’s economic health and natural heritage.” Well no truer statement could be written down and no truer commitment to New Zealand’s future could be made than that from a Government that properly funds properly resources and shows commitment to biosecurity. 
What did National do when it came into power? Its very first Budget cut over $2 million from front-line services for biosecurity and ongoing cuts resulted in 96 front-line staff being chopped from MAF Biosecurity New Zealand. At that time the Government came back saying: “Well what did Labour do in Government?”. In Government we doubled the amount of funding for biosecurity from 1999 through to 2008—we doubled the commitment to biosecurity. We still knew that it was not perfect but we had doubled the funding and we had formed Biosecurity New Zealand as a separate entity within the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry—a separate entity focused on protecting New Zealand from biosecurity risk. We had then instructed it to undertake a strategic review and develop a strategic plan for biosecurity moving forward. Labour in Government both recognised acknowledged and funded biosecurity as the most important area—more important than military security. We doubled the funding and we have done a lot in that area. The National Government goes on about it but biosecurity as the Auditor-General’s review has said is one of the most fundamental and important issues for our economy. 
We still get 30 to 40 incursions—that is unwanted pests and diseases—coming into this country every single year. I note the ability of the professionals and I would like to acknowledge the people who have worked in biosecurity. They do an outstanding job. But in the last 4 years I have been contacted by a large number who have left the job. They simply cannot commit to their conscience. They cannot in all honesty say that they can remain in the job and do it properly under the cuts that have been forced upon them by the National Government and by the faults that this Auditor-General’s report has clearly identified. 
So firstly in 2009 we had cuts to front-line services. The Auditor-General’s report did not actually address the border security issues; it actually looked behind the scenes to where we were told by the Minister and have been told on numerous occasions—the former Minister in particular—that New Zealand’s biosecurity system is world class. It is world class—the Minister has repeated it in this House numerous times and through press releases. Well if it is world class it is simply not good enough. We have 30 to 40 incursions every year. The Auditor-General’s report said that the planning is not up to it not only for the single biggest threat which is foot-and-mouth but also in all other areas of biosecurity—strategic planning training human relations management staff training. You name it; there are huge huge gaps. The recommendations are very clear. We have got in the Auditor-General’s report an identification of the lack of leadership. This comes squarely back to the Government because if you do not have a Minister who is prepared to lead in their portfolio area you will not have a Government department—not you Mr Assistant Speaker Robertson; perhaps the Speaker who was formerly in the Chair but not you. If you do not have the leadership you do not have the strategic vision and you do not have the effectiveness of the department. 
I will go through a few of the recommendations. The report said that we should make “all biosecurity planning more realistic …”. There have been from Biosecurity New Zealand and going back probably more than 4 years some ambitious targets. Those targets were set on the basis of funding that was committed by the last Labour Government. We doubled the funding remember—the funding that was going to be consistent to all areas of Biosecurity New Zealand. It had ambitious targets. There was no doubt about that; the Auditor-General said so. But the Auditor-General said that it was unrealistic particularly given the constraints on resources that the incoming National Government placed on MAF Biosecurity New Zealand. It is no good making false promises or assurances when you cannot deliver. That is what the Auditor-General said. 
The second recommendation is: “Complete response plans for high-risk organisms including foot and mouth disease and review them at regular intervals …”. We had the fruit fly outbreak a major scare in this country—the single biggest threat to the horticulture industry is the Queensland fruit fly. We had one fly identified in Auckland and this report said that the response plans were not complete and that in fact had that outbreak been real had the number of flies been far more than the one we were not in a situation to handle that incursion properly. 
Again on the third one—clearly identifying the foot-and-mouth disease—it said that we simply have to “Prepare better …”. There was Exercise Taurus in 2012. In fact going back prior to that we had a suspected foot-and-mouth outbreak and there were lessons learnt. Unfortunately the lessons have not been implemented into better processes for MAF Biosecurity New Zealand. In fact I have to be up front and say of course that we got rid of Biosecurity New Zealand. In fact now the National Government in getting rid of Biosecurity New Zealand has put it back into a super-ministry called the Ministry for Primary Industries which deals with issues from trade through to food safety forestry fishing and biosecurity. It is little wonder then that the issues of biosecurity get hosed down. They will be suppressed or compromised by the trade negotiators a number of whom will be with the Prime Minister in South America at the moment who are promising to open doors and increase the trade which we need I understand—we all understand—but not at the expense of biosecurity standards. 
The staff capability which was something we were very proud of under Biosecurity New Zealand has been compromised. Because of the constraints on resources and on finance the planning the support and the training for each and every area of biosecurity have been compromised and the Auditor-General has clearly identified that. 
Can I say that we are today tomorrow facing threats from incursions and one in particular that I would like to raise that we have not properly assessed because of the constraint on resources is the one of palm kernel expeller. That is the supplementary feed brought in from Malaysia and from a couple of other Asian countries to feed cows—supplementary feeding for the most part and actually in times of drought it is essential feeding which I acknowledge. However there has been a report done by farmers who went to Malaysia and who asked to go to a factory where this product was made. It is a by-product of the palm oil industry. They wrote a report that is quite alarming. They sent that report to the Ministry for Primary Industries and we have yet to hear a dickey-bird from the ministry. That report said that palm kernel is coming into this country. It is potentially exposed to animals to vermin that are themselves exposed to foot-and-mouth endemic areas. We are fearful that we may allow into this country because of insufficient monitoring by an under-resourced under-prepared group of people—a not unskilled but unprepared I guess group of people who have not had the support and sufficient training in the last few years—foot-and-mouth through palm kernel expeller. That would be a disastrous situation. At a time when farmers are looking for more supplementary feed it is going to come in in greater volumes. We want to know that the National Government is going to resource the Ministry for Primary Industries to ensure that we do not get foot-and-mouth in this country. 
This is quite a substantive report. I applaud and acknowledge the independence of the Auditor-General’s work. It is first-class. It does not pull punches but it is alarming. If the Government does not act on the recommendations it is like placing a bomb in the middle of the room here and waiting for it to go off because one thing is for sure: without major improvements in both the resourcing and the planning the training and the preparedness of our biosecurity team then we are going to face a major problem. Psa is destroying the kiwifruit industry as we speak. Psa identified flaws in the system. We were told that the Government was moving to improve that system; the Auditor-General says otherwise. The Auditor-General has said our biosecurity system is not world class. In fact it is deficient for a country— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Whose is better? 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: Oh Nick Smith. Yeah he is over there. He has been one of the Ministers who has sat on his hands squeezed resources for this vital area and then he will go around the country and say: “Oh I’m the Minister of Conservation.” It is not only the primary sectors that are threatened by biosecurity incursions it is the conservation estate and the Minister should wake up to that fact. It is in fact all of our natural heritage it is our economy threatened each and every day and the Auditor-General says that we are not prepared. We are not prepared as a country and unless Nick Smith and his colleagues and his cronies are prepared to put in more money more focus and more resources he and his colleagues will be responsible for the destruction of our economy because if foot-and-mouth comes in here we will all be paupers and that is the truth of it. 
I go back to one of the first statements made by the Auditor-General: “Our country is more dependent on biosecurity than any other developed country. Biosecurity is fundamental to New Zealand’s economic health and natural heritage.” The Minister of Conservation who is sitting on his chuff over there should listen to that. The natural heritage that we use to draw tourists to this country and that we are so proud of in our “100% Pure New Zealand” image is dependent upon us keeping out unwanted pests and diseases. I applaud the Auditor-General. I hope that there will be a report in 2 years’ time when we come into Government that clearly identifies a drastic improvement because the Government has for once decided to put resources into the right areas of Government responsibility. I applaud this report I table it and I seek help from the Government to take some action on it.