National Animal Identification and Tracing Bill

The bill before the House in its second reading is the National Animal Identification and Tracing Bill.

💬 Hon David Carter: That’s right.

It is in the name of the Hon David Carter, the Minister of Agriculture, who interjects across the House. He is the member responsible for the bill, but the work for this bill precedes that good member’s work and goes back some time. The bill is very important because the New Zealand economy is based on agriculture—of that there is no doubt—and very important to our agriculture is, of course, our animals. We have to take the most up-to-date, modern, and scientific approach that we can to managing agriculture. The old ways are no longer any good; we have to have new ways of doing things.

This bill will see the introduction of animal tracing and identification systems that are vital to controlling and preventing the spread of animal diseases. New Zealand’s animal tracing systems need to be updated, because an increasingly high standard is expected by our trading partners. Our trading partners are increasingly concerned about biosecurity issues, about traceability, about health, and about hygiene. We will be starting in this area with deer and cattle; electronic tags will be compulsory for all stock. Other species may be added in the future. No doubt we will be looking to spread this system to sheep, but at this point it is for cattle and deer. I presume—not that I am an expert on this—that it is because of the high incidence of tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis is a very important problem. It is spread more widely by the wide range of possums in New Zealand. Not everybody realises the link between possums and tuberculosis. People think possums sit up in trees and eat just pōhutukawa or rātā, but in actual fact possums prefer tussock and grass. They like the very lush grass that New Zealand farmers put out, so they come down to eat. When possums eat they leave saliva, and sometimes cattle come along later and eat the same grass. The grass can be infected with TB from the possums.

This brings into play another part of our important system, which is possum control. The country has had quite a lot of controversy about possum control, because a good deal of that control has been undertaken by aerial 1080 poison drops. These are not always popular, let me tell members. There are people who have severe doubts about the long-term effects of 1080. They believe that it has an effect on birdlife and other animal life. But people are agreed that we need to reduce the number of possums. I happen to have some interest in this because I have been involved with people who have been involved with possum control before, and I prefer to see live bait stations, where control is done on the ground. I think we can do a great deal more for controlling possums by ground control rather than simply by aerial drops. I know that ground control takes a bit more time to organise. I know that ground control is a bit more difficult. But it is no more expensive and, in fact, it is much more effective. So we want to concentrate on reducing TB. Not only do we want to concentrate on the contagion but we also want to do it in terms of managing our animal stock.

Labour is aware that this bill is very important. We initiated the development of the National Animal Identification and Tracing system in 2004, which is a quick and effective response to outbreaks of animal disease, and which could be used if that terrible thing, foot-and-mouth disease, came into New Zealand. That could be incredibly costly to New Zealand’s agriculture, and incredibly costly to New Zealand as a whole. We are very fortunate in that we are an island. We do not have any natural predators crossing the sea to us; we are not abutting up to other countries that have diseases. We are naturally isolated, and this gives us an advantage with regard to keeping diseases out. New Zealand is very fortunate in this, and we need to maintain that natural advantage by having proper systems to ensure that our stock diseases are reduced. The fact that we are disease-free is one of those things by which we can sell our products with advantage.

Maintaining this disease-free status is very important. The one area we are very at risk in is the area of TB. We have had some terrible outbreaks of TB in the past. It has been very expensive. We have put in no-transfer zones, and we have forbidden the shifting of stock from TB-infected areas into other areas to minimise infection. We have undertaken extensive tests of animals in the areas where there have been outbreaks of TB, and over the years, with significant control, we have reduced it. This bill helps to reinforce the control systems necessary to manage disease, and to make sure that we manage any future potential outbreaks to ensure that they do not damage New Zealand’s disease-free status. The bill is to make sure that we are able, in fact, to manage things much better.

This is good legislation. The whole of the House should support it, and Labour supports it. I say in conclusion that this is very good legislation. The Hon David Carter is grinning from ear to ear. This bill is probably one of the most effective that he has put forward in the House. He is very proud of it, and rightly so. It has the tick-off, but—

💬 Darien Fenton: Who started the work?

The member to my left interjects and asks who started it. Well, it is a bit of a bun fight, is it not? Of course, we all know that all the good ideas sprang from the previous Labour Government. We are very pleased to see that the Hon David Carter has seen the wisdom of this work, and has not tried to trash or modify it particularly. He has simply seen the wisdom of it. It has been compelling wisdom, and he has accepted it and continued with it. The only thing I can ask is why the Hon David Carter did not get this bill higher up on the Order Paper and get it passed sooner—sooner. I would have thought that this legislation, given the wide support it has across the House, could have been dealt with in the first year, and could even have made the 100 days of action. But, no—

💬 Hon David Carter: You’ve got to get the industry with you. That was the difference.

Oh, the member said he had to get the industry on board. Well, I understood that the industry was very supportive of this legislation.

💬 Hon David Carter: Some were, but that’s not entirely.

The Minister says that they were not all entirely supportive of this legislation. But it seems to me that this is a place where the Minister should have shown leadership—shown leadership. He should have taken the lead, taken a stand, and said: “Here it is.” But obviously he decided to become the negotiator and the peacemaker, and I say good luck to him.

It is a very good bill. I congratulate the Minister, and I congratulate particularly those Labour members who had a hand in forming this bill, and in crafting it before it came back to the House.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak and support the National Animal Identification and Tracing Bill. I come from a rural province that has a large dependency on, and also great expertise in, the agricultural sector. Despite our great success in oil and gas exploration, and despite our great success in engineering and all the service industries around those areas of the economy, Taranaki continues to be one of the premier agricultural areas in the country. So this bill is very important to us and our economy. It works very well to protect our markets and ensure they always remain desiring of the products and commodities that come out of our region.

NAIT Ltd is the industry-owned company responsible for implementing the National Animal Identification and Tracing scheme for cattle and deer, which is designed to link people, property, and livestock. That is from its press release that came out yesterday. It said that the scheme will assure New Zealand’s overseas markets that a livestock disease can be quickly contained in the event of any biosecurity incident.

Sixty percent of our exports come from the agricultural sector, so we are incredibly dependent upon the sector. It bodes very well and it is very important that we have this technology integrated into the tracing of any biosecurity threat in order to not only protect our livestock and our farms from the incursion of TB but also assure our overseas and international markets that we are putting in place best practice to ensure the quality of our goods as we market them offshore. Thank you.

💬 Darien Fenton: Mr Speaker.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): No, I am calling the honourable member Dr Paul Hutchison.

Thank you for the opportunity to talk on the National Animal Identification and Tracing Bill. It certainly is a most timely bill, and the Minister of Agriculture, David Carter, needs to be congratulated on ushering it in in such a timely fashion. I understand there is support amongst the parties, and that is a great thing. They realise that this bill is important for the country’s biosecurity, its animal health, and also for the marketability of our high-value export products—and this is becoming more and more so.

It is salutary that a variety of other export industries in New Zealand have gone ahead in the traceability stakes. In Pukekohe, the onion industry has been required to do this by major importers in Europe, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, so that they can identify the box of onions that goes there from the field they are grown in. This is the sort of standard that is being required more and more throughout the world. So, as I say, it is timely that the National Government has responded to this and it is supported by the other parties of the House. I understand that 5 or 6 years ago a Mr Ted Coats was chair of National Animal Identification and Tracing, and he continues to be so.

Just before I finish, I want to mention one thing. The company that invented the tags was actually a New Zealand company. It started off in Palmerston North about 30 to 35 years ago, by virtue of one of the local farmers calling his jeweller mate to see whether he could manufacture an appropriate tag for him. From there the company grew. It is now a multinational, billion-dollar turnover company. The tag contains an electronic device that makes the traceability possible. There is another all New Zealand-owned company.

But just to finish off, as I said, this bill is highly appropriate and timely. It is being brought in flexibly and gradually, and it will serve New Zealand well.

This will be a short call on the National Animal Identification and Tracing Bill. The bill will enable the establishment of a national animal identification and tracing system to control and prevent animal diseases and product contamination. My largely rural electorate of Rangitata will welcome that, and it will be better all round for New Zealand and New Zealand agriculture. I commend this bill.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): That is the end of the calls.

💬 Darien Fenton: Mr Speaker.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): There are no other calls. That is the end of the debate. The question is—

💬 Hon Rick Barker: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I accept that it is entirely your decision as to how calls are taken, but we have now had three National calls in a row, and I clearly saw my colleague Darien Fenton stand to take a call. Instead of taking a call from the National side of the House and swapping to this side, you decided to keep the call on that side. We are just a bit puzzled about this, because it is normal for calls to swap backwards and forwards. There is a pre-arranged order, but I would suspect that National has had more calls on this than we would normally expect, and Labour fewer.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Thank you. I understand the honourable member’s concern. I say to the member that the Labour Opposition is entitled to four calls; the National Government is entitled to five. The call of ACT, which is part of the Government, was traded to the National side. That is how the speeches have been done, and we have now concluded.