Ardern Shane: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Ardern Shane: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:631;Page:2831] 
12.  
SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki-King Country) 
 to the  
Minister for Biosecurity 
: Is he satisfied with current border control checks on meat imports and was there a risk that foot-and-mouth disease could have been imported with the recent raw pork discovery? 
Hon JIM ANDERTON (Minister for Biosecurity) 
: 
 Yes I am satisfied although not complacent of course. New Zealand is internationally recognised as having some of the toughest border controls in the world. However there is always a risk that mislabelled or smuggled product will pass through our borders so the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry as a second line of defence also checks retail outlets for prohibited meat products. One of those inspections uncovered the raw Korean pork. I understand that Korea is considered foot-and-mouth disease - free following successful eradication of an outbreak a few years ago so the risks associated with the raw pork are considered negligible. Nevertheless as a precaution the raw pork found has been destroyed outlets are being reminded of their obligations not to feed raw pork to animals and investigations are under way to see whether those responsible can be prosecuted and whether changes are needed in Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry systems. 
Shane Ardern 
: Is the Minister satisfied that it took nearly a month to alert the public to the raw minced pork from Korea a country that has had repeated outbreaks of foot-and-mouth; that the pork had slipped through the border controls between the months of August and December 2005; and what is he going to do about it? 
Hon JIM ANDERTON 
: Any mistake made in biosecurity and any delay in discovering any mistake is of course significant and serious. As I said an investigation is now under way and a recommendation will be made on whether to pursue a prosecution once evidence-gathering is completed. Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry security systems will also be part of that investigation. 
Dave Hereora 
: Is the Government investing sufficiently in border control and related measures? 
Hon JIM ANDERTON 
: The Government has substantially increased funding for prevention and border-related services over the 5 to 6 years that we have been responsible for that service. Funding has increased by 89 percent since this coalition became the Government in 1999-2000. It is also continuing to invest in further second lines of defence for example in vaccines. Last week New Zealand joined a small group of developed countries to have arrangements in place to provide in commercial quantities a vaccine for foot-and-mouth disease should it be required following Government funding of this initiative. 
Shane Ardern 
: Is this the same Hon Jim Anderton who said in his biosecurity speech on 9 December 2005: “We need to see the public as the front line in our defence.” when the public were kept in the dark on this issue of a biosecurity breach for up to a month? 
Hon JIM ANDERTON 
: No attempt was made as far as I am aware to hide any of this information. If the member knew of any of this information which had not been released to the public he would of course have reported that immediately because not to do so would be irresponsible in the extreme. 
Shane Ardern 
: Does this Minister agree with Treasury reports that state that a foot-and-mouth outbreak would slash $12 billion from our economy and turn New Zealand into a Third World economy? 
Hon JIM ANDERTON 
: Of course an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease would be serious for this country but the member should not talk up that matter unless he has in mind doing the very act of sabotage that foot-and-mouth disease would do itself. 
Shane Ardern 
: What changes will take place in our container surveillance and other border control systems to ensure that pallet loads of raw illegal pork will not slip through our borders and be sold in grocery stores in the future? 
Hon JIM ANDERTON 
: Pallet loads of raw pork—or raw anything else—are not allowed in New Zealand; it is illegal. We have significant border controls to prevent it. But as I know from all kinds of statements the member makes he believes that there is a possibility of excluding every possibility of an incursion into this country no matter where it comes from—on the air in the sea in containers through tourism—and to believe that is the most foolish kind of presumption that I or anyone else I know in the biosecurity industry have ever heard. 
Shane Ardern 
: I seek the leave of the House to table the speech that the honourable Minister for Biosecurity made to the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Biosecurity Institute on 9 December where he stated that front-line defence depended on good public support. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.