13 June 2019

National is proposing increasing the penalties for breaching biosecurity rules at the border to protect our farms, orchards and natural environment from pests and diseases, National’s Biosecurity spokesperson Nathan Guy says.

“Our biosecurity system is under immense pressure with 5.5 million passengers entering the country each year, along with increasing imports.

“We want to toughen up on those bringing in risk items which could put our biosecurity at risk. This would mean increasing fines from the current $400 to $1000 for those found to have risk materials, and giving Ministry for Primary Industry officials the power to immediately deport those who are found to knowingly conceal risk items.

“National wants to ensure importers are held accountable for signing off Import Health Standards on goods that aren’t free of biosecurity risk items. These measures will go a long way to better protecting our border.

“For more details on our approach to biosecurity and other matters in the primary sector I encourage you to read our recently launched primary sector discussion document.”

Note to editors: Primary Sector Discussion Doc can be found here

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