Kedgley Sue: Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Kedgley Sue: Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:642;Page:12160] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party is pleased to join in what seems to be unanimity in this House by supporting the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill. We are particularly pleased that this bill will require for the first time that these literally thousands of veterinary medicines that are used in New Zealand will be assessed for their risks to human health and to the environment. One would have thought that this would always be the case but alas no. For the first time we will have to consider those risks and also consider that stock food will be covered by the regulations. As many people will be aware genetically engineered commodities are fed to animals as stock feed—for example soy canola corn and so forth. Until recently even though we knew that much of this stock feed had been genetically engineered it has not been covered by any regulations. It is very very satisfying to find that this bill will cover stock food and pet food and will—as the Minister said—require that things like cyanide and other veterinary medicines will be able to be sold only by authorised persons. Thank heavens for that! 
One aspect of this bill that I was particularly pleased to see was in the commentary where the committee—I was not actually on the select committee that considered the bill—acknowledged that some veterinary medicines are exactly the same as human medicines the only difference being that they are given to animals rather than humans. The committee pointed out further that some medicines such as antibiotics when they are the same as those used in human health and when they are fed to animals on a large scale pose significant risks to humans and potentially the environment and could pose a threat to human health. 
 It is very pleasing to see a select committee actually acknowledging this very very significant risk to human health which is posed in particular by the continuous feeding of things like antibiotics to pigs and chickens in New Zealand. As the bill points out the problem is that we are feeding some of the same medicines used in human medicine to animals—and feeding them continuously. 
As a recent report pointed out it is one thing to give antibiotics to individual animals on a case by case basis as we do with humans but it is quite another thing to continuously feed antibiotics to animals in their breakfast lunch and dinner as it were and in their water on a mass scale. Because what that inevitably does—and we all know this—is give rise to antibiotic-resistant bugs and bacteria. These bacteria can of course spread antibiotic resistance into the food chain and the environment throughout New Zealand. 
We know that this is a very significant problem in New Zealand. A very small study carried out by Massey University found very high levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria on a single pig farm. Another study found that 40 percent of the chicken farms they sampled had bacteria that were resistant to vancomycin which is considered to be the antibiotic of last resort. 
One would have thought that if we had studies showing this degree of resistance developing in our pig farms and chicken farms we would take this risk extremely seriously—particularly as overseas there is a lot of research into and real concern about antibiotic-resistant bacteria being found in pig herds and poultry flocks. This is causing quite a flurry of interest regulation and efforts overseas to reduce the amount of antibiotics that are fed to animals—particularly pigs and chickens. One would think given this international concern that there would be similar concern here in New Zealand. Alas that is not the case. Despite all of the evidence showing that we are spreading antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the environment and through the food chain we continue to allow farmers to continuously feed antibiotics to chickens and of course to entire herds of pigs as well. As someone said in a recent report the problem with factory farms is that they are raising more than pigs and chickens; they are raising drug-resistant bugs as well. This is very much the case here in New Zealand. 
Given that we have basically done almost nothing about this very serious problem other than sweep it under the carpet and turn a blind eye to it it is frankly exciting for me to read a select committee report that actually addresses this issue refers to the concerns about it and seeks to strengthen the regulations around not just the feeding of antibiotics but the feeding of all veterinary medicines to animals. The report also acknowledges that veterinary medicines such as anti-parasite dips and drenches which are used on whole herds of animals also pose significant risks to human health and the environment. 
We are absolutely delighted that we are acknowledging the risks to public health from the adverse effects of agricultural compounds and requiring that the risks to human health and the environment be taken into account. We are delighted to support this legislation. We hope it will not be just a piece of legislation that sits in the bottom drawer as it were but that it will result in much more stringent monitoring of veterinary medicines and assessment of their risks. We hope we will see a reduction in the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in particular and other veterinary medicines in New Zealand.