Estimates Debate — Vote Agriculture and Forestry

One would think that the primary role of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry would be to support and protect our agricultural industries, but we have this peculiar situation where two key farming industries are virtually at war with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. We have the pig industry spending about $800,000 over the last few years on a court case against the ministry because the ministry is proposing to lower biosecurity standards to the point where a devastating pig disease could enter New Zealand, which would devastate the pig industry. Secondly, we have the bee industry, where bee-keepers have been fighting the ministry for years now because the ministry is proposing to bring in imports of Australian honey, which again could harbour devastating diseases that could devastate the bee industry, which has already been weakened by the varroa mite.

If certain diseases that we do not have here, but which Australia has, were to come into New Zealand via honey, we would then have to treat bees in New Zealand not just with miticides and pesticides but also with antibiotics. We are one of the only countries that does not have to treat bees with antibiotics. That gives us a unique position in the world when we sell our honey exports, but we are prepared to put this at risk in order to bring in Australian honey when we are overflowing with honey. New Zealand is genuinely a land of milk and honey. We are overflowing with milk and we are overflowing with honey, yet this Government and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry are proposing to bring in honey from Australia, even if that honey could cause devastating consequences for our bee industry. The pig industry is in a similar situation.

I think the reason for this extraordinary situation, where significant farming industries are at war with the ministry and the Government on these issues, is that there is a conflict of interest at the heart of the ministry. On the one hand we have biosecurity staff running around trying to keep out pests and diseases, even though about 80 biosecurity staff have been slashed, and on the other hand we have these trade officials running around the world and New Zealand pushing their free-trade agenda and saying that we have to open all of our borders to Australian honey and pig meat—never mind that they might bring in devastating diseases—and, unfortunately, the trade officials seem to be winning hands down. I believe we have to look seriously at separating out biosecurity from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, so that we do not have this conflict of interest at the heart of the ministry and so that the trade officials who are running around trying to open up our industries are completely separate from the people working in biosecurity who are trying to protect these industries.

The other issue I will just briefly touch on is the issue of antibiotic resistance in farm animals. The ministry undertook a 1-year survey on antibiotic resistance in food-producing animals. It concluded that the results were pleasing. It said that farmers were using antibiotics responsibly and there were no problems for human health. One would think: “How fantastic! No problem at all.” But if we take the time to read the actual 1-year survey, we discover that 55 percent of poultry and 35 percent of pigs had antibiotic-resistant E. coli. Then we discover that 48 percent of samples of calves contained E. coli bacteria that were resistant to three different types of antibiotics. Yet we have the ministry telling us that the survey results are pleasing, even though more than half of the samples of calves contained E. coli bacteria. These calves were so young that they could not possibly have been fed antibiotics, so what is going on? It is interesting that I have had a number of people contact me in recent times who are concerned about the amount of antibiotics being fed to animals not just in the poultry industry but also in the dairy industry.

Vote agreed to.

Vote Biosecurity agreed to.

Vote Economic Development