Financial Review Debate — Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry

The member must call. You say “Mr Chair”, then I respond.

💬 Steffan Browning: Mr Chair.

The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy): I call Steffan Browning.

I note that the new ministry is now the Ministry for Primary Industries and now includes the Ministry of Fisheries and the whole works. In fact, unfortunately some of the parts of what was the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and what were the New Zealand Food Safety Authority, MAF Biosecurity New Zealand, and all that, are even losing their identities into this new super-organisation that effectively is a “develop for trade” organisation, maybe, rather than being focused on the New Zealand consumers and communities. But this particular report is pretty specific. We have got biosecurity and forestry in particular that came up in there, but there were also some issues that came up during the questioning of the then ministry’s personnel, of both organics and genetic engineering, so I would like to cover two or three items.

One thing that stood out, and does stand out, with both the old and the new bodies is that there is no holistic approach to agriculture, forestry, and fisheries in New Zealand. There is no overview as to why you might go down a particular path in terms of sustainability because of the interconnections with the environment and the community. It is all about milk powder and beef, it would seem, primarily. I wondered, and I have asked, and will continue to push, as to why the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and this Government dropped any effort towards the organics sector in New Zealand. The organics sector is showing best practice in terms of sustainability in this country, which can actually resolve many, many of the issues that we see in our environment, which the community at whole is effectively propping up for the primary producers who are doing a bad job. There are plenty who are doing a good job, but unfortunately there are a hang of a lot who are doing a very, very bad job in terms of our environment. But this Government chose not to reboot the Organic Advisory Programme, and the ministry is doing nothing effectively, apart from a dribble occasionally with a Sustainable Farming Fund application, if we are very, very lucky. But at the same time we are still seeing money going into genetic engineering.

💬 John Hayes: Great!

It is definitely not great, in any sense of it. We have a fantastic brand, and we had one before our current Prime Minister sold it out as Minister of Tourism—“100% Pure New Zealand”. He went to “New Zealand 100% Pure You”. There is no aspiration in there, and I have talked on that in this House before. Genetic engineering has no part in Brand New Zealand. It will do us no good in terms of Brand New Zealand and the export of our primary produce. We are very, very fortunate at the moment. We only have one field trial—that is the only legitimate genetically engineered material existing in New Zealand at the moment—and that is through animals at Ruakura. No doubt there will be some pine trees replanted when Scion gets over its last breach. That is a really good opportunity for New Zealand. We can actually remove that last field trial and New Zealand will be GE free, like so many places in the world at the moment are trying to become again, after seeing the problems with GE in their countries.

Another thing we spoke on and looked at was around biosecurity and the problems we are having with biosecurity. Again, we have seen it with this Government allowing border control staff to drop by 60 because trade had dropped off and it did not see the need. Yes, we have got some smart new systems, in terms of risk analysis, but in fact what we are doing is dropping the game, big time. We have had the strawberry seed incursion, and it will be very interesting to know just how bad that was, because I suspect there was an issue in terms of contamination of that, because so much of that was suppressed. I have just been talking with the pork industry.

I want to thank that member, Steffan Browning, for his contribution on the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry report. Can I first of all say that, yes, as of yesterday the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry was finished with. We named a new organisation, the Ministry for Primary Industries, and I want people in the Chamber to take particular note of the word “for” primary industries. There was a branding issue once the Government had decided to bring three Government departments into one. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry already operated under a number of brands. We have taken the opportunity, with the integration of the Ministry of Fisheries, with the integration of the New Zealand Food Safety Authority, and with the integration of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, to come up with a new name that is all-embracing: the Ministry for Primary Industries. I want that new ministry to be absolutely focused on the New Zealand economy, on the fact that the very base of this New Zealand economy is the agricultural and primary sectors of New Zealand. That organisation now has to be very focused on working with all aspects of the primary industries to make sure that we deliver the greatest potential to the New Zealand economy.

I do note the member’s comments around organics and the fact that the Government does not now put a considerable amount of money into the organics industry. But the Government has done so, and there are a lot of other aspects and farming systems here in New Zealand that, if they want to promote themselves, are expected to do so. At some stage it is necessary for this Government to cut the umbilical cord and say to the organics industry that if it is so successful, if it is so successfully meeting the demands of New Zealand consumers and the demands of international consumers, then it should be able to command a premium for its product, and in commanding that premium for the product it is time it put some money back into the industry to allow it to expand and grow.

Mr Steffan Browning shakes his head, because he knows that despite considerable money going into organics, the industry is not gaining significant premiums for its product, either in New Zealand or elsewhere—or elsewhere. I will give you one example that should bring that home to Mr Steffan Browning, even though he is a Green member of Parliament. Fonterra used to run an organics operation. A prior president of Federated Farmers, Tom Lambie, ran an organic dairy farm in South Canterbury. Fonterra said to him and to other organics suppliers here in New Zealand that it was not getting a significant premium for the product. It was uneconomic for it to continue to collect that milk, and it abandoned the programme.

Mr Steffan Browning made some very interesting comments around biosecurity, and I say to every audience I get the chance to speak to that that is the greatest risk to the New Zealand economy. It is absolutely paramount that the Ministry for Primary Industries and the Government work, hopefully, with Opposition parties to deliver the most effective biosecurity systems we can at the border. Yes, we did reduce some staffing when trade dropped off through the global financial crisis, but I say to Mr Steffan Browning that those services at the border are cost recovered and it would be inappropriate to continue to charge other importers of goods excessive charges simply as a means of maintaining staff at the border.

The other thing I stated, Mr Steffan Browning, is we must continually look at the way we manage our borders. Systems change, threats change, and technology changes, and although everybody I speak to around biosecurity concentrates on the system they have at the airports, because that is the system most people interact with, the greatest risk is actually at our seaports, and we need to continue to be vigilant there. We will have incursions occurring, sadly—that is a fact. In fact, we have had particular insects that have flown over from Australia and landed in New Zealand, and no amount of X-ray technology at the border will stop it, Mr Browning.

What we do need, when we get an incursion, is a means by which we can ascertain how critical it is to any industry. That is the very reason we are engaged so significantly with industries around the Government-industry agreements. Then, if it is an economic pest that we have the ability to control, we must act, and act quickly. The biggest lesson I have had in that regards the Pseudomonas syringae pv. Actinidiae incursion in the Bay of Plenty, where the Government has worked very, very well with the industry, realising we could not eliminate it once it arrived, but working with the industry to find means by which that industry can move forward with varieties that are resistant to, or tolerant of, the disease. I want to take this opportunity in my closing comments to congratulate the kiwifruit industry on the way it has come through what were very, very dark days for it.

Report noted.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade