Follow on Twitter
Email A Friend
New Zealand First says the country is paying for the Government’s lack of foresight when it slashed border biosecurity that allowed the PSA virus to devastate Kiwifruit orchards.
A review released this week made six recommendations to overcome shortcomings in the way kiwifruit, kiwifruit pollen, nursery stock, seeds and horticulture equipment were imported into the country before the PSA outbreak.
Biosecurity spokesman Richard Prosser says the Government was focused on cutting costs for border biosecurity instead of ensuring diseases and viruses didn’t enter our country.
“The Government was more concerned with allowing as many people as possible through our airports and ports without so much as a single check on what they were carrying.
“More staff and sniffer dogs are needed at airports but the Government has negligently failed to act so they could cut a few dollars from their budgets.
“This short-sighted policy is now costing the taxpayers millions of dollars and threatens the future of one of our most prized industries,” says Mr Prosser.
Tweet
Posted on 05-07-2012 15:55 | By traceybjammet
all great ideas but they all cost money and NZ is only just starting to get back on its feet. Also no matter how hard you try sometimes s""t happens and I do hope the growers are also ensuring they follow all the rules that keep them safe and blame is an easy game people need to work together with governments to solve issues. Maybe big companies like Zespri etc should contribute to border protection of course this could be partly tax-deductable