Ministerial Statements — Mycoplasma Bovis—Government Response

I wish to make a ministerial statement in regard to Mycoplasma bovis. A fortnight ago, Cabinet approved a phased eradication plan to remove Mycoplasma bovis from the country’s cattle herds. That decision came after much work and discussion with industry groups. These groups, including Dairy New Zealand, Beef and Lamb, Federated Farmers, rural support trusts, the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand, and the Meat Industry Association, backed eradicating the disease, which has an impact on the health of cattle, including high mortality among calves, mastitis, high rates of abortions, and reduced milk production. The eradication plan is likely to cost more than $850 million over 10 years, with industry groups contributing 32 percent of that. I’d like to thank them for their contribution, not just in terms of investment but the expertise they are supplying on the ground.

Since the announcement two weeks ago, I have visited many parts of the country to talk to farmers and ensure that the response is taking into account the needs of people on the ground. Most farmers I talked to support phased eradication while acknowledging it will be difficult. Although the eradication programme is predicted to affect less than 1 percent of the national herd, it is tough financially and emotionally for farmers and families whose animals are infected by the disease. I want farmers to know that this Government and their industry leaders are committed to helping them and their families, because they are taking the hit for the other 99 percent of farmers in our efforts to stop Mycoplasma bovis going through the entire national herd.

To that end, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has streamlined its compensation process and boosted its compensation team to 35 people. By the end of this week, we will have paid out nearly $11 million in compensation, but this is an area where I’m constantly pushing for improvement. I instructed the ministry to tap into even more on-farm expertise to help people on the ground with compensation claims and difficulties they face when placed under movement control. Moving to phased eradication has allowed MPI to work with industry partners to bring in more people with practical farming experience. There are now 40 people from industry groups on the ground helping farmers. More than 250 people are working on the response. The rural support trusts are doing great work, and we’re funding them to ensure people get the help they need.

In the past fortnight, I can report that the number of farms under regulatory control has been reduced from 300 to about 180. This is likely to change as the response progresses. The reduction is mainly due to farms under notice of direction being tested, cleared, and allowed to get on with business as usual. The number of properties with confirmed infections recently reduced from 39 to 36, as a result of properties completing the culling and disinfection process. The culling of some 24,000 animals on 28 of those infected properties has been completed, allowing them to go into the disinfectant stage.

In total, 44 farms have been identified since July 2017, with eight now cleaned and cleared of Mycoplasma bovis. We expect to find more infected properties in coming months as part of the normal tracking and tracing of animal movements. We’ve started to make improvements to the national animal tracing system and are committed to improving biosecurity standards and laws to ensure that they are fit for purpose. We will be tougher on enforcing the rules that protect us from biosecurity incursions. This is a big and complex challenge for all of us, but I’m committed to learning from mistakes made and improving the response where required.

I’d like to thank the farming community for the necessary honesty and support. I’d like to thank the Opposition for backing our eradication plan and my colleagues for their support in Cabinet. In the next few months, there will be more challenges for us all as we attempt to do something no other place in the world has achieved—that’s eradicate Mycoplasma bovis. When I look to countries like Ireland, which are grappling with growing problems from M. bovis, I’m convinced that we have to do our utmost to remove the disease from Kiwi farms. If there comes a time when we must give up the fight, then we will appraise that with a clear eye after more bulk testing of milk in the spring.

The Government knows how vital the primary sector is to New Zealand’s economic success, and that is why we’ve made this investment to eradicate Mycoplasma bovis. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

The National Party stands and supports the Government’s plan to eradicate this terrible cattle disease here in New Zealand. Finally farmers have some certainty. As I move around the country, I hear from a lot of farmers and not all of them agree with this plan. We should take this opportunity to see if we can, as a country, eradicate this disease. We have a proven track record: three Queensland fruit fly responses meant that we could eradicate that from New Zealand, and I’m heartened to hear from officials that it’s likely that pea weevil will be eradicated in Wairarapa, which will be a first around the world.

No Minister can stop any incursions from occurring in New Zealand. There are 175,000 items that cross our border a day; 5 million people choose to come to New Zealand a year. I hear often that people say, maybe, from time to time when they’re under pressure or under the pump, “Oh well, just close the border down. Just stop people coming. Just stop trading.” Well, the reality is, if we did that it would collapse the New Zealand economy. And, of course, if we did that, there’s no guarantee that something could not indeed blow into New Zealand like myrtle rust did, or indeed swim into New Zealand.

If we have a look at our record in Government, in Budget 2017 biosecurity spending got to the highest ever—an all-time high of about $250 million: more people on the front line, boosting the dog detector team up from 40 to 60, making sure we’ve got modern X-ray equipment, investing $90 million in the biocontainment facility in Wallaceville, which is near completion, that will be focused on these exotic animal diseases. Also, moving forward, looking out to Biosecurity 2025, ensuring that we have a huge amount of awareness happening with New Zealanders—4.7 million New Zealanders should be more aware of biosecurity then what they are currently. We’ve heard from the Minister of Agriculture and there’s been a lot of discussion about the cause of M. bovis. It is within the farm gate. It is a productivity issue that causes lameness, pneumonia, flu-like symptoms, and abortion. We don’t want it in New Zealand. Unfortunately, it is here, and now we have an opportunity to eradicate it.

I remember when the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) rang me over the weekend of 21 July and said it was likely that it was here. Then I briefed Cabinet to make sure that MPI had resources to stand up to the response. Those farms in particular were locked down. We made sure that the testing and the tracing was done. We reached out to international scientists. Public meetings were held. When we left office, there were seven infected farms in Ōāmaru, and since then, it has spread to other parts of New Zealand.

There’s been quite a bit of discussion and debate about Cook Strait—whether the inter-island stock transportation should be closed down. It was interesting to hear from officials, saying “There are no clear benefits. It would be incredibly disruptive and costly, and there’s about 85,000 cattle that move from the South to the North each year.”

It’s also going to be timely for MPI to update New Zealanders, and, in particular, farmers and rural communities—where are they up to with their ongoing investigation? That is one thing that farmers want to know, and at some point soon I’m looking forward to hearing from MPI where they are up to with their investigation.

We heard also from the Minister about the problems with the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) scheme. It came in in a phased roll-out in 2012 to 2015. The review was kicked off by this Government in 2016. I think it’s fair to say that the Operational Solutions for Primary Industries New Zealand board need to take some responsibility for not doing the compliance of NAIT and not handing that over to MPI to follow through on those farmers that, indeed, may have been neglectful in their responsibilities.

Now that the decision has been made to eradicate, it’s going to be very important to support these farmers who are taking one for the team. Rural support trust do a great job, but we need to be very mindful of the toll that this will have on farming families up and down the country. It’s great to hear that the Government has stepped up and responded to our concerns about fast and fair compensation, and now that is going to occur within a few days, so well done.

I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to support this measure of eradication of Mycoplasma bovis, and I would commend the Minister on his leadership in this matter and, as the previous speaker, Nathan Guy, has mentioned, on the fact that the certainty we have been seeking as a sector is now there. I would like to also acknowledge the leadership we have seen from the likes of Dairy New Zealand, Federated Farmers, and Beef and Lamb New Zealand, and the rural support trusts have also been mentioned. These organisations have come in behind, and I think it is incredibly important that we show a united front. I would actually include the Opposition in this list as well, because the last thing we needed was political bickering. We need to be getting behind our farmers. We’ve made the call; let’s get in behind and eradicate this disease.

Some farmers have questioned the validity of doing this—whether it’s actually a serious enough disease to have taken this measure. I would not agree. I think the previous speaker, the Hon Nathan Guy, mentioned the list of afflictions that it causes, but what he didn’t mention was the mortality rate within calves, and what we’ve seen down south is that rate up to 30 percent. Our cattle are naïve to this disease, and if it became widespread within our industry they would be very, very vulnerable. I would also point out that within the beef industry, if this was to get into the beef breeding herd, where the calf is the primary source of income, that would be devastating and actually almost clean out that section of farming. So that probably hasn’t been acknowledged as much as it should be, but it’s the reason why Beef and Lamb New Zealand have been so proactive in this, so we thank those industry organisations.

I would also just reiterate the words that have been said about the farmers who are, essentially, going to be sacrificing their herds for the national good. I have a friend, actually, who has got a herd that has been tested positive and who has stud cattle, the breeding of which goes back 100 years. The distress in that family is incredible, it’s immense, and that is replicated, of course, around the other farmers, but we must not forget them. We must get in behind our rural support trusts and resource them as possible.

I think the financial commitment—that’s the other thing; I’d like to thank Cabinet actually. When you’re doing a Budget process, Minister Robertson, there is so much call on the nation’s finances. There are so many worthy causes. But you have seen the merit of this. You have put in significant funding that, quite rightly, people could argue could have been going somewhere else, but you as a Cabinet have stood up, recognised this disease, the importance to the agricultural community and our wider economy, and backed us all the way. And whilst a response on the ground may have been left wanting in some areas and needs to lift—and, hopefully, is lifting—there is no sense that this has not been fully supported from on high, and we thank our leadership.

Just on that, I’d call all members to be in touch with their farming community—those that they know—because sometimes the response on the ground isn’t the same as the official advice that we’re getting. So keep in touch with those people. Make sure that we’re feeding that advice back to the Ministry for Primary Industries, because that is an important element.

Of course, the whole debacle around the National Animal Identification and Tracing system (NAIT)—that hasn’t been good enough. We know that. That will be a discussion, I think, for later. But we need the lessons of this to be learnt. They will be hard-won, but as a nation we pride ourselves on leading the world in agriculture, and if any country can beat this, it will be us. Thank you.

Mr Speaker, thank you. I’ll just take a brief opportunity to thank all parties in the House for their support—the coalition partners in particular. This is a huge amount of commitment and funding from taxpayers to this movement—the reason being that this affects 65 percent of our export earnings. The livestock sector is significant. We are doing our very best to support them through a difficult challenge. We can give them an assurance that regarding the National Animal Identification and Tracing system, the 38 recommendations that came from an independent review are being looked at. Each and every one of them will be implemented—23 of them without legislation—as quickly as we can, and then we will be back to the House to bring in the other ones.

Can I just say, in summary, this is a time for cooperation and honesty across the farming sector. We will not beat this without the support of farmers, and they will not beat it without supporting one another. So we want some honesty in terms of tracing, so that we can track and trace every possible infected animal. We want some cooperation among farmers to help one another, when some will come under huge pressure emotionally, and we want someone to reach out and help them. Together we can do this, and we can eradicate this disease.