Bees Show Pest Charges Can’t Be Levied on Everyone

An across the board charge for biosecurity costs can’t be introduced without regard to the consequences for the entire agricultural and horticultural sectors, Progressive Wigram MP Jim Anderton says.

The former Biosecurity minister says some contribution from industry towards biosecurity costs makes sense.

But he says biosecurity cost recovery has to be applied carefully.

“There isn’t an even match between costs of biosecurity protection and sectors that reap the benefits,” Jim Anderton says.

A new Biosecurity Law Reform Bill being debated in parliament will make it possible for farmers to be charged for the cost of cleaning up biosecurity incursions as well as the cost of keeping pests out.

“When industry has some of the responsibility for cleaning up pest incursions, it puts an economic incentive on the industry to help to keep pests out in the first place.

“The last government recognised the principle of getting businesses with a stake in the outcome to shoulder some of the job of keeping pests out. But it doesn’t make sense to put all the costs on the sector that is being affected by a potential incursion, because benefits from one sector spill over to others.

“For example, if beekeepers had been forced to cover the entire cost of keeping varroa bee mite out, or its eradication after it arrived, that could have closed the beekeeping industry. But our entire horticultural industry and much of our agricultural production depends on bees. Even if it is not economic for beekeepers to fight varroa, it is critically important for the rest of our horticultural and agricultural sectors to have a thriving bee industry. The costs of keeping pests out would be enough to wipe out a key sector that benefits a much larger part of the economy.”

Jim Anderton says the Government needs to redraft its biosecurity statute to better work with agricultural industry sectors.

“There are some producers who benefit from pest control but want someone else to pay for it. But there are also industry sectors which would benefit from having a stake in making sure pests are kept out It is essential to ensure costs don’t fall in a way that wipes out some critically important parts of our agricultural economic base.”

ENDS

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