COUNCILLOR DEMANDS FULL FACTS OVER RABBIT VIRUS BOTCH-UP

Dunstan (Central Otago/Queenstown-Lakes districts) councillor Michael Laws is demanding “the full facts” behind the delayed rabbit virus “botch-up” that will see Central Otago’s rabbit plague continue “for at least another year.”

“ It strains credulity, and the patience of our Central communities, that a relatively simple approval process can become so complex and time-consuming.

The Korean virus has been successfully released in Australia. They can do it, New Zealand can’t. Why?”

Cr Laws said that Dunstan councillors on the Otago Regional Council had been warning of a rabbit plague for the past three years. In return, both they and their communities had been assured that help was on the way – and the Korean RHDV1 strain would be operational from this autumn.

“ Then this week – the brakes get slammed on. We still don’t why. Some media reports (eg RNZ News – see attached) suggest the delay can be blamed upon tardy regional council staff. If so, that would be wholly unacceptable.”

Cr Laws said that he would utilising both official and informal channels “to identify the log-jams and the potential threat that this virus never be released.”

“ In some parts of Central, we are back to rabbit levels of the late-1990s.

At which stage, farmers took things into their own hands and you do wonder if that stage isn’t too far away, again. Without farmers’ intervention last time, I doubt the virus would ever have been released.”

Whatever the cause of the current policy blockage, Cr Laws said a dramatic revision of the Otago regional council’s pest strategy was required.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/country/327233/'we're-in-the-midst-of-a-plague-at-the-moment'

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