Ardern Shane: National Animal Identification and Tracing Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ardern Shane: National Animal Identification and Tracing Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 07 February 2012. Volume:677;Page:122. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
The previous speaker touched on the need for a robust identification system and that is absolute. We as members of the Primary Production Committee just met with a Swedish delegation of our counterparts from that country. They were fascinated by the growth of our primary industries in this country and asked us what it was that we thought may have differentiated what we do here as compared with what is happening in other parts of the world. One of the things that sets us aside when you look forward at what our opportunities might be as far as exporting our primary industry products is concerned is our quality control and the checks and balances and assurances we can give when we market product to something like 150-odd countries in the world.  
One of the things that goes with that is traceability. How certain are you that the product you are selling is what you say it is to the quality the market is requiring and what you are suggesting you are going to market it as? That makes it absolutely essential that we have in place systems that can robustly check those measures. That comes down to something as fundamental as being able to identify the particular animal in question. It is important not only from a quality-control point of view but from a biosecurity point of view as well.  
So the select committee looked at what was being proposed listened to a wide range of submissions and called in a number of experts and through that process we discovered that potentially we were being left behind by emerging technology. We were not sure—and how will you ever be sure of those things—and so we asked for further advice on how we could make the National Animal Identification and Tracing Bill more enabling around that. We received some I guess conflicting information. The Minister and his officials have been grappling with that for some time. Ultimately we ended up in a situation where we have come up with provisions that enable future development in that area. So the bill is an enabling piece of legislation that does not lock in one or another particular piece of technology.  
Some of the opposition that the previous speaker spoke of earlier in the debate on this issue was around what cost there would be to the individual producer and what potential benefit there could be to the individual producer. As our markets have emerged and developed and prices have increased there is more and more potential for this to be used not only for the purposes intended by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Government but by farmers themselves in the management of their farming systems. So to enable a rapid and accurate tracking of animals from birth to death is something that is fundamental for our exports. There is nothing more fundamental than providing information on the location the movement and the history of animals and I think it was brought to the attention of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry under the previous Government with the Waiheke Island foot-and-mouth hoax. There were a lot of small lifestyle blocks as you would expect at a location like that that were unidentified or the animals thereon were unidentified and a lot of time was spent trying to ascertain what was actually there and what the risks were. The real irony of that is that by the time that information was available news reports and suchlike were reporting all sorts of things that were inaccurate. To be able to have an accurate register of these livestock is absolutely fundamental to the integrity of our biosecurity system.  
This bill is intended to improve our biosecurity management. It will help manage risks around human health. These are often overlooked. With the whole debate around the use of 1080 and the eradication of possums what are we trying to do here? We are trying to control the spread of tuberculosis. It has an effect on humans. It is an old disease. It is not something that is commonly thought of as a modern-day disease but it could be and the interrelationship between bovine tuberculosis and human tuberculosis is well documented. So there is a lot of opportunity in regard to that.  
To improve animal productivity—that is the point I think that the previous speaker was touching on. There is a range of options in terms of recording the performance of individual animals within a herd or a flock that ultimately could lead to a profitable use by the farmer himself or herself of this new technology. That is something that I think is completely underexplored at the moment. It is probably more advanced in the cattle industries of dairy and beef than it is in the sheep industry but there is an opportunity for all.  
The bill also as I said earlier allows a higher degree of certainty around market access. When we are marketing to the world we need to be able to assure those markets that we are providing a product up to a standard. It also supports a lot of the compliance issues that Ministers face in international agreements around trading. So there is a range of opportunities there. Enabling the establishment of the National Animal Identification and Tracing governing organisation is going to be a fundamental part of the whole process going forward and you know the legislation needed to be solid around that. If there is any further debate to be had I am sure it will be had in the Committee stage of this process. Data management systems the protection of those and the information provider involved in that have the same difficulty as any other information provider and data management. So the right regulation etc. around that needs to be set. 
 Then of course the species of animals that are included is an evolving thing. I suspect that it will not be long before all types of animals are in there but obviously there is some resistance from our sheep-farming colleagues as to what benefit there could be and how you can credibly have a retention rate of the devices to make it a robust system. One of the challenges I guess is that you know for some of our high-country farmers the animals are not herded that often or brought together in a place where these devices could be inserted. Certainly when you talk volumes with low numbers of labour there are challenges around the physical side of managing all that. So devices that can be applied and that have a retention rate that is acceptable and a reliability rate that is acceptable is a developing area as well.  
I recommend the passing of this legislation. It has had a long gestation period. It has been fraught with debate but it is good to see it getting to this point in the parliamentary process.