Expel food cheats says MP

Deporting foreigners who bring in unwanted food or animal products would help keep New Zealand free of alien pests, says National Party agriculture spokesman Gavan Herlihy.

Mr Herlihy floated the move as potential policy at the party's annual conference at the weekend and renewed the call yesterday.

But it has met a lukewarm response.

He said growing numbers of backpackers were travelling to remote regions in countries such as Thailand and India and bringing food into New Zealand.

This was increasingly threatening the country's agriculture industry.

"If travellers knew that our stance on risk items coming across our border was tough in the same way everyone knows about Singapore and Malaysia's stance on drugs, it'd go a long way," he said. "All you'd need is a few deportations and the word would get around ... "

Mr Herlihy said the number of potentially dangerous items intercepted at borders was increasing.

He said 68,000 items were intercepted in the year to March, and in May there was a 24 per cent increase in confiscated items compared with May last year.

About 40 per cent were brought in by foreign travellers.

Making penalties tougher for New Zealand offenders could also be on the cards, he said.



Cathie Bell, spokeswoman for Biosecurity Minister Jim Sutton, said the effectiveness of recent measures such as instant fines - introduced in June - needed to be assessed before tougher penalties were considered. The Government had put $20 million a year more into border control, she said.

Government policy was now for 100 per cent interception of risk items, rather than the 80 per cent target by the previous National Government.

Federated Farmers chief executive Tony St Clair was cautious about the idea, saying instant fines and greater advertising were positive moves and their effectiveness needed to be gauged before tougher measures were introduced.

Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society conservation manager Eric Pyle supported tougher penalties.

- NZPA