Ministerial Statements — Mycoplasma Bovis Outbreak—Culling of Cattle

I wish to make a ministerial statement on the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak. I want to update the House on significant steps taken in recent days to control the spread of the cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis. The disease, first discovered mid - last year, has an impact on the health of cattle, including high mortality among calves, mastitis, high rates of abortions, and reduced milk production. It is a drag on the incomes of farming households, rural communities, and the national economy. I’ve been working hard with officials, industry leaders, and farmers on the ground to take actions to limit the outbreak’s impact.

Yesterday, I announced that the Ministry for Primary Industries will cull 22,332 cattle on all properties infected with the disease. This is the single biggest cull of cattle in New Zealand’s history. Last Friday, I announced the introduction of a checkpoint at the top of the South Island for trucks carrying cattle north, which will prevent animals moving from infected and restricted properties. These necessary steps are aimed at stopping the spread of the disease, giving farming families certainty about their livelihoods, and protecting our regional and national economies.

The reason we’ve decided to cull cattle now is that milk testing shows that Mycoplasma bovis is not endemic in the national herd. All our finds to date stem from two farming hubs. I note that the industry has backed the Government’s decision and decisive actions in recent days, saying that these steps will allow farmers to plan for the future. These latest actions will be paid for by $85 million that Cabinet and industry groups dedicated to the response earlier this month.

Tracing the disease has been a massive undertaking, owing to the poor use and application of the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) system. A review of the tracing system found that just 57 percent of those farmers recording their animal movements do so within the 48-hour statutory time frame, and it’s estimated that only 30 percent of farm-to-farm animal movements are recorded. Unrecorded stock movements are a significant reason for the spread of Mycoplasma bovis and have slowed our tracking of the disease. That is simply not good enough. We will work with farmers to fix NAIT’s problems and to protect our economy from future biosecurity threats.

Coming from a proud farming family, I understand how hard it can be for people on the ground dealing with Mycoplasma bovis on a daily basis. In my visits to farms around the country in recent months, I’ve been heartened by the support that farmers and their rural communities have shown to each other. I want to thank farming industry groups, and in particular rural support trusts, for their work to help farming families dealing with restrictions on their farms as a result of the Mycoplasma bovis response efforts.

To those farmers who face the culling of their herds, I understand that this is a difficult time, but the Government, in the actions it is taking, has shown it’s committed to working with you as farmers, and we are prepared to make the difficult decisions. Officials have reassured me that farming families will be walked through the process to cull animals in a caring manner over the coming weeks, and we are boosting compensation teams to help farmers claim for the verifiable losses that they suffer as part of the biosecurity response efforts.

Officials continue to investigate how the disease entered New Zealand. It is a complex task, and we are working hard to find the source of the outbreak. The dairy sector is New Zealand’s largest export earner, at $14.6 billion of export revenue for the year ended June 2017, while the beef sector earned an extra $2.7 billion. This Government is committed to ensuring these industries, which are vital to New Zealand’s economy, are resilient and protected from biosecurity threats.

The Mycoplasma bovis outbreak highlights the impact biosecurity threats pose to our agricultural production systems. As the world becomes a smaller place, these threats are more persistent and harder to keep from our borders. I consider biosecurity is the biggest challenge I face as Minister, and the biggest challenge we face as a country. I’ve committed to upgrading the Biosecurity Act to ensure it is fit for purpose in a world where pests and disease can come on a boat, in a plane’s cargo hold, or carried by a tourist visiting our country.

Over the coming weeks we will continue our tracing of Mycoplasma bovis before making a final decision, which I’ll take to my Cabinet colleagues, about whether eradication is still possible and economically viable. I expect the number of infected properties will increase as that work continues. Eradication is still our focus, but that will come with a price tag and a lot of hard work and cooperation between everyone involved. The Government’s actions over the last few days have shown the importance we place on supporting our farming sector.

Before I call the next speaker, can I just remind Ministers that they do have—I didn’t interrupt the member when his time was up, because it is a matter of significant importance to New Zealand, but it should be possible to make a ministerial statement within five minutes, and I would like to remind Ministers, when they do it in future, to stay within that time.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Can I respond to the ministerial statement this afternoon. The National Party acknowledges and supports the decision that the Government has made, but I have some very important questions that are worthy of discussion this afternoon. If we think back to seven herds being culled prior to December—that was the support that this side of the House wanted to see continue, but then the Minister and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) decided, because of new information—and maybe because they ran out of money—to stop the culling at that point, and then, actually, compensation dried up, because the Labour coalition Government didn’t get in a huddle in the Cabinet room quick enough and get the funding confirmed to provide certainty to farming families up and down the country.

I acknowledge now that they have made the decision. Of course, they went to the industry with the begging bowl and generated $11.5 million, which I think actually shows the importance of this cattle disease to not only the dairy and beef cattle industry in New Zealand but the wider New Zealand economy.

This ministerial statement has a very important caveat near the end of it. It says that Cabinet has still to decide if full eradication will take place and if, indeed, it’s economically viable. That is a “get out of jail” card for the coalition Government. Yes, they have made a commitment yesterday to cull 22 herds, but we want to see this continue. I guess they’re waiting to see some further evidence that may pop up when animals are indeed under stress.

My heart goes out to those 22 farming families who will now have their farms depopulated. That is a hell of a thing for these farming families to actually go through. There is quite a period of stand-down where animals—particularly bovine animals—won’t be allowed on these properties. You can imagine the livelihood that these farming families have built up with genetics over time. All of this is now going to be put at risk. So my challenge back to the coalition Government is be fair with your compensation and make it fast, because previously, in the last few months, it’s been too slow. Farmers have been contacting me overnight saying yes, they appreciate the decision, because now they’ve got some certainty, but they want the compensation to happen quickly. They want to get on with it.

The other important factor is providing the emotional support around these farming families, and I acknowledge the Minister this afternoon praising rural support trust, who have done a huge amount of work supporting MPI through this process at the moment, but you can imagine those farming families now that have to deal with the culling of stock that they have brought up over many, many decades to get to this point. That’s why the challenge back to the Government is make sure that compensation is fair and fast.

Also, I’m very keen to see the tracing report that many stakeholders have been waiting for a long period of time for. If I was the Minister, I’d be putting out the tracing report and the National Animal Identification and Tracing review this week so that everyone can have a big discussion about it. What the tracing report will tell farmers and all New Zealanders is that they don’t know how this disease got into New Zealand, it’s inconclusive, and it’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Let’s have the debate about the National Animal Identification and Tracing scheme. We should be having that debate, because farmers haven’t been doing well enough, in particular, tracing their stock between farm-to-farm movement. So this is a real wake-up call for industry.

But, importantly, where is the extra funding going to come from? Because this $85 million is just about the start, and we know the constraints that this coalition Government has on their Budget for 2018. So are they going to be supporting farming families in the future? Or is this just a one hit, because the ministerial statement that we heard this afternoon gives me a great deal of caution and some doubt. So, in summary—

The member’s time has expired.

For the benefit of those people in the gallery and those watching on television or listening on the radio, that was the speech by the former Minister of Agriculture, who was in charge, in all senses of the word, when this biosecurity breach happened: 170 under his watch. There were 170 biosecurity breaches and he gets up, this man, and gives us his bucolic road to Damascus experience. When did he have that? Then he had the effrontery to start screaming out about funding. For nine years he and his colleagues did nothing about it at all, and he had the effrontery to get up there, perhaps to pose to his backbench members about his proficiency, when he showed what a capital “H” word man he is. That was the worst example I’ve heard of irresponsible behaviour in a long political career.

Can I say, their response was pitiful, woeful, half measures, half-hearted, and they did nothing whatsoever. Well, let me ask that former Minister: when it happened, did he move to shut down transport over the Cook Strait for stock? No.

💬 Hon Nathan Guy: Stupid idea.

Oh, a stupid idea? So it breaks out in the South Island but you’re going to make sure it could happen in the North Island. That’s a silly idea? Well, that demonstrates, you know, about the old English saying, the malady of the ignorant is being ignorant without knowing it. Secondly, when it came to cattle tracing, what, for nine long years, did he do?

💬 Hon Members: Nothing.

Doughnuts, and he gets up here in this House and poses and ponces around here as somebody who’s a leader. Now, can I ask this question as well: why weren’t those animals culled immediately to contain the problem? [Interruption] No, don’t look at my colleagues. We inherited the problem. We inherited it from who? You.

💬 SPEAKER: Order!

No, not you, Mr Speaker.

💬 SPEAKER: No.

Oh no, you’d have been far more responsible. You would have acted with urgency and unction. No, no, that man’s all talk, all words, all hype, and all propaganda. We had over 170 biosecurity breaches, and on not one occasion did they take responsibility. Did they put the money up for customs control, border security? No, and he gets it. He’s hardly out of Government, he’s hardly got used to the embittered experience of catching an ordinary cab, and now he’s, in a malingering way, blaming the successors, who have picked up this nonsense.

💬 Hon Nathan Guy: You voted against the border clearance levy.

Oh, give me a—

💬 Hon Nathan Guy: Yes, you did! Yes, you did!

Ha, ha! You know, Minister, can I just say this. Very shortly—[Interruption]

💬 SPEAKER: Order!

Yes. Very shortly, my colleagues and the Minister of Agriculture will produce the total response that’s required when it comes to these sorts of breaches, to the discovery of who did it—and, by gee, when we find out who did it, if we do find out, we’re going to throw the book at him. We’re not going to run around and talk about compensation alone. No, we want a bit of responsibility. But I think it’s best evinced by the Federated Farmers’ statement and the farming community statement today in support of the Government on this matter. But let me, please, tell you this. We’ve got the gipsy movement coming very shortly. You know what that is, don’t you? It’s not the National Party backbench. It’s not the National Party front bench. The gipsy day cattle movements are right upon us, so it’s critically important we have this problem solved. And also we have the autumn cattle sales happening as well, and no preparation in the last nine years was made for this whatsoever.

So I want to thank my colleague the Minister of Agriculture for showing—unlike that member—that he understands farming in its full way, in its full capacity. He understands that farming’s in the regions, and we’re the party for the regions—not just when it suits us; all the time. I also want to say that when the Budget comes very shortly, then the people of this country will see, and those listening today to this debate, that there is a Government that does understand its responsibility and they will have given the people who are there as our first line of security the resources for the first time in nine years to do the job.

Kia ora, Mr Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou, kia ora. I rise on behalf of the Green Party to support the Minister’s statement. We acknowledge the steps taken to control the spread of the cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis. This will be the largest cull of cattle in New Zealand’s history, reflecting the importance and the seriousness of this disease to our important dairy and cattle industries. Our thoughts are with the farms affected by this and note that while there will be compensation, many will feel the emotional loss of the animals they’ve raised as well as the investment in time and breeding.

We’re particularly vulnerable in New Zealand to biosecurity incursions and we note the existing challenges of kauri dieback disease and myrtle rust. We are heartened by the announcement of a review into the funding model, a review into the Biosecurity Act, and an improvement to National’s inadequate National Animal Identification and Tracing scheme. I think what many people in our rural communities would rather see from this House today is a focus on solutions, not a focus on scoring political points, particularly when the track record was so incredibly dire after the last nine years. Culling 22,000 animals is an unfortunate but necessary step to protect these animals and our primary industries and, hopefully, eradicate Mycoplasma bovis.

The Hon Damien O’Connor in reply, and I’ll just say to the member in case he happens to look at the clock, it starts at five and finishes at three, because we don’t have a two-minute bell.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. The outbreak of this disease is devastating for too many farming families around this country. I think the cheap politics in this House today shown by the Opposition is a disgrace at a time when too many families will be under huge pressure, having to destroy the stock that they have bred and loved and nurtured and looked after. This Government is trying to clean up a mess left by the previous National-led Government, which demanded more production from farmers but turned a blind eye to practices that have made this Mycoplasma bovis outbreak worse. The previous Government passed the National Animal Identification and Tracing legislation (NAIT), set up the NAIT system, but did not enforce it, and it turned a blind eye to obvious evidence and information that says that only 30 percent of farmers were recording farm-to-farm movements.

That is not good enough. The Government, by its action to cull cattle and check the movement of cattle and ramp up the Mycoplasma bovis response, is working to tidy up this mess. We must make changes to our animal tracking system, place greater emphasis on farm biosecurity measures, and cast aside the laissez-faire approach promoted so long by the previous Government which endangered farmers’ livelihoods and has endangered our wider economy.

The Opposition can throw stones, but their record here is pitiful. When there was a call for leadership, they showed none, instead choosing to turn a blind eye to the obvious problems of the NAIT system across the farming sector. The National Government was negligent, and the effect of their slackness has put our economy at risk. No doubt the Opposition will complain bitterly about the speed of compensation payments to farmers. It’s a system that has been set up—

Order! The member’s time has expired. The member will resume his seat.