New Auckland Biosecurity Centre

The new hub is about strengthening border protection to keep pests and diseases out.

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Opening of the MAF Biosecurity Centre, Auckland Airport

Tena kotou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa

I want to tell you a story that is a bit of a horror story if you are involved in biosecurity. Back in June last year in Hawke's Bay, someone made an ugly discovery: They found red fire ants.

These are nasty, aggressive little ants. They have a vicious sting and if they get established, they make it impossible for us to use a lot of places − backyards, school grounds, camping sites and more are affected.

So what do we do when a pest like this is discovered? When there are criminals on the loose, we expect the police to protect the public. When there are diseases on the loose, we expect the medical services to respond. And when there are biological incursions, the job of defending New Zealand is led by MAF and Biosecurity New Zealand.

Cabinet set aside nearly eleven million dollars to look for the ant and eradicate it.

The fight against the red ant is still underway. To date it has been successfully eradicated from here in Auckland, and from the Port of Napier. But it's still not been fully removed.

So we can learn a lot from the story of the red ant about how we protect New Zealand: First of all, it tells us where we should be looking for the most imminent peril to New Zealand. Many countries around the world are under siege from bombs and bullets. Our bad guys are biological.

Second, when it comes to dealing with the bad guys, it is much easier to keep them out of New Zealand than to try to eliminate pests once they are here.

The threats we face are ongoing. New incursions are always lurking. Because there are always new threats and new incursions, we will never vanquish them. We will never be able to say our biosecurity is assured and we can relax.

And the opportunities for incursions are growing because our economy is growing. It has grown by a quarter since this government was elected at the dawn of this century. We import 75 percent more sea containers. More than four million passengers and crew fly to New Zealand each year − a third more than in 2000.

So we have to be smart in how we deal with our biosecurity.

There will never be a time when we can promise one hundred percent secure defences against biosecurity incursions − any more than the police can ever promise to make New Zealand free from crime.

We don't have unlimited resources and we never will have. We could try to protect our border by closing it − and even then it would leak. But we are part of the world and as long as we expect to go out in the world and come back (and as long as we welcome others to New Zealand), then pests will make their way here too.

If we tried to aim for a hundred percent secure biosecurity, we would be less effective, because we would take limited resources away from where they are most needed and put them to lower value uses.

It's better to consolidate our resources against the greatest risks. It's better to be smart in how we respond to our biosecurity threats. A smart approach brings together everyone involved in defending our border.

That's what this new Auckland Biosecurity Centre is about. It will be a hub of biosecurity border operations in Auckland. It will centralise all of MAF-Biosecurity New Zealand operations in one place.

A few examples: Risk assessment will be based here. Since we want to put our heaviest artillery in the place where the greatest risks are, risk assessment is a central part of our biosecurity.

There will be a shared public counter here, with Customs Services, inspection of goods, audit and training facilities, the detector dog programme, a call centre, investigations, enforcement, and lab facilities.

From the point of view of the public, what is important is getting across the border efficiently, and keeping nasties out. The public expect professional services from the government agencies involved.

And there are a lot of agencies involved at the border − there are something like twenty with a role. For example, one of my other ministries, Fisheries, is interested in the movements of foreign fishing vessels. The Ministry for Culture and Heritage has an interest in whether precious objects are being taken out of the country. The Ministry of Health wants to keep pandemic diseases out.

All these agencies have a different way of seeing the border. Immigration sees the border as the point where a visa is issued. Customs sees the border where the visa-holder arrives in New Zealand.

From the point of view of the public, who we are here to serve, these perspectives are not important. People just want to be able to move across the border and at the same time ensure pests, terrorists and other undesirables can't and don't.

So the solution is to bring together into a one-stop-shop, as far as possible, the point where agencies interact with the public. Then the individual agencies can focus on their priorities and the public can get the professional, customer-focused service we expect.

This government is committed to New Zealand's biosecurity.

We spent fifty percent more on biosecurity last year than we spent in 2001. We spend around $77 million at the border keeping pests out, more than twenty million dollars a year on surveillance and incursion responses, and another four million dollars on biosecurity enforcement.

Altogether last year the government spent $140 million managing pests − from incursion response to pest management programmes on Crown land, to the Bovine Tuberculosis National Pest Management Strategy managed by the Animal Health Board.

In the Budget this year the government increased biosecurity funding even further. We put another $39 million into the effectiveness of managing our border. The effort is going into the border because money spent stopping pests getting in is more effectively spent than trying to eliminate pests once they are already here.

Our biosecurity is crucial to New Zealand. Our primary producers are crucial to our economic well-being, and their ability to compete in global markets depends on our biosecurity assurance.

Our livelihoods depend on keeping pests and diseases out, protecting our natural advantage and providing assurance to our trade. It's crucial, too, for our sense of New Zealand. We identify ourselves partly by our unique environment, and pests threaten that.

We are transforming our border protections to reduce the risk before pests enter New Zealand. And we are strengthening our readiness to respond when pests and diseases do make it in.

This new centre is a symbol of our effort.

In closing, though, I want to observe that the job of being vigilant at the border is not only a job for government agencies.

Every New Zealander has a stake and a role in protecting our border. From river users on the lookout for didymo, to commercial freight companies, to many other New Zealanders involved with our biosecurity. All New Zealanders have a role to play in keeping us as free of incursions as possible. We all depend on our biosecurity.

I want MAF and Biosecurity New Zealand to enjoy a very strong relationship with industry and with all their partners in defending our border. Working in partnership is the best way to both be vigilant against incursions and to expedite the trade and travel that is our economic lifeblood.

And I want to thank everyone here who plays his or her role in defending us as well. This centre symbolises the government's commitment to a professional and productive partnership. I welcome the success of this centre, and I wish everyone who will work here all the best for the future.