Cunliffe David: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cunliffe David: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 14 August 2012. Volume:682;Page:4349. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn) 
: 
 It is a privilege to take a short call on Vote Primary Industries and in particular to reflect the word from the agricultural community which is that National seems to have something against farmers at the moment. The sad evidence of that fact is in the cuts to front-line biosecurity services—front-line services vital to protecting our billion-dollar agricultural trade and our export industry which is worth thousands and thousands of jobs. From these job cuts $2.8 million was saved compared with the billion-dollar cost of a foot-and-mouth outbreak in New Zealand or the 146 times greater cost of the Psa outbreak in our kiwifruit industry. The latest independent report on the Psa disease shows that it will cost our economy $410 million. That is 146 times the cost of the cuts to the staff. 
John Key promised not to cut front-line services but in 2009 his Government slashed 54 front-line biosecurity positions. More redundancies have followed since and the latest figures show that there are now 91 fewer biosecurity staff than previously. Even Wellington Airport in this fair city where we are standing has not had a sniffer dog working in it since October last year. That is gross negligence of duty by a Government that is exposing our primary industries to undue risk. In fact the number of detector dogs nationwide I am advised has dropped under National and last year only one new dog— 
John Hayes 
: Woof woof! 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: —was trained compared with 15 in 2008. Members opposite might snigger but the reality is that those dogs are our last line of defence when not every package can be opened on the biosecurity front. 
Mr Carter the Minister for Primary Industries said that staff cuts were a result of a drop in imports but that just does not stack up because for example since December 2009 the number of international passengers arriving in New Zealand has increased by 140000 a year and in December 2009 the value of imported cargo including the cost of insurance increased by $6.9 million. So we have more people more imports fewer biosecurity staff fewer detector dogs and weaker protection. Maybe it is a coincidence that we have had a tragic outbreak in our kiwifruit industry but frankly that is not a risk that New Zealanders should be taking. 
I think this shows a broader point. This National Government is priding itself on trying to balance the books but it is falling into a very old well-known problem. It knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Penny-pinching a few bucks out of biosecurity and prejudicing a billion-dollar industry is not smart. 
The other word on the street is that this new Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries conglomerate is being dumbed down—dumbed down. It has forestry people working on agriculture and fisheries people working on forestry. The whole thing is a mess. It is like the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment the great white whale that blended the Ministry of Economic Development and the science ministries which has saved nothing given Mr Joyce an empire but contributed nothing back to industry. 
The Government does not have a substantive plan—not a real strategy—so it is moving the deckchairs around amongst the Public Service to give the impression of movement. The thing is that farmers are pretty smart people. They know the difference between real work and make-work and they are not fooled by a bureaucratic shuffle. What they want is answers and they want protection for biosecurity and that is why the Labour Party is standing up and saying that we disagree with those cuts to front-line biosecurity services. 
Hon Christopher Finlayson 
: The Labour Party hates you. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: The Labour Party Attorney-General the Labour Party—exactly. Agriculture is New Zealand’s mainstay. It is our primary export sector. We depend upon the protein fine food products wines and other products from our primary sector that we export. The Labour Party is committed to partnering with this industry to help it to grow to get more people in work to increase the value of our exports and to bring higher technology better jobs and higher incomes to this sector. We are willing and able to listen to the industry about what it needs and to partner with it towards a future that is going to be more prosperous and more sustainable. Thank you.