Govt to tighten border security

By FRANCESCA MOLD political reporter

The Government is considering spending millions of dollars to tighten border controls just days after playing down concerns about the threat of foot-and-mouth disease.

Biosecurity Minister Jim Sutton yesterday revealed an aggressive new stance on border security, saying the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Britain provided a "window of opportunity" to raise awareness among New Zealanders.

He said a campaign to educate New Zealanders about foot-and-mouth was being planned, but details were sketchy at this stage.

On Monday, Mr Sutton will also ask the cabinet for several million dollars to hire more staff and introduce border security initiatives.

The biosecurity spend-up comes just a week after Energy Minister Pete Hodgson, speaking on behalf of Mr Sutton, assured Parliament that New Zealand already had one of the world's best detection systems.

Mr Hodgson even described a press release by Act MP Gerry Eckhoff calling for beefed-up border security as "wide of the mark."

National leader Jenny Shipley described the new publicity campaign as a belated and "wildly inadequate" response to the outbreak.

"What is the use of educating farmers and New Zealanders when the risk is far offshore?" said Mrs Shipley. "The risk is not on New Zealand farms or in urban New Zealand, the risk is at the border."

She called for the Government to immediately pay for footbaths and tighter screening at borders.

The Government's sudden interest in the threat of foot-and-mouth comes a day after Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry officials met concerned rural representatives.

Last week, MAF told the Herald that despite fresh outbreaks in Britain, it was business as usual for New Zealand border control, which had faced the threat of the disease from other countries for decades.

Yesterday, Mr Sutton stressed the main foot-and-mouth threat to NZ came from Asia, with 490 outbreaks in Southeast Asia in the past year.

Britain has reported 69 infected sites since the first outbreak last month.

"It would be quite wrong for New Zealanders to think that when the UK outbreak is over, the risk is gone. It will not be," said Mr Sutton.

The new publicity campaigns, paid for out of MAF's present budget, will educate farmers about how to spot symptoms, and make urban dwellers aware that an outbreak would affect the whole economy.

The campaigns will be followed by a $2.7 million general biosecurity campaign, already budgeted for.

MAF's director of corporate communications, Anthony Keesing, said of the campaign: "Were there ever an incursion, the sooner it can be identified and isolated the better."

He said city dwellers might think it was only a farmers' problem, so MAF would be painting a picture of what New Zealand would look like after a major foot-and-mouth outbreak. Most people would see a noticeable drop in their standard of living.

Mr Keesing said the aim was to "motivate Team New Zealand" to be alert to the dangers of foot-and-mouth and other biosecurity hazards.

No border protection system was 100 per cent reliable. But unlike contraband, where breaches were organised and intentional, most biosecurity problems came from "naive smugglers" such as those who decided not to declare a pair of shoes worn on a farm so they could clear Customs and get home quickly.

"If they knew they were endangering the economy, most New Zealanders wouldn't do it," he said.

MAF also hoped locals would warn intending visitors of the risks to our "uniqueness" from imported pests and diseases.

Mr Keesing said that when the crisis was over in Britain and was no longer preoccupying the news networks, the level of risk would have diminished only slightly.

Mr Sutton said MAF was investigating incidents of people breaching quarantine rules on arrival in New Zealand.

One of those being investigated for falsely filling out a quarantine declaration form is Jenny Wood of Waipukurau, whose experience on returning to NZ was cited by National in Parliament to allege that border controls were failing.