25 March 2004 Biosecurity Moves Beyond Island Status – National Centre for Advanced Bio-Protection Technologies Opened

New Zealand can no longer rely on its island status alone to protect it from biosecurity threats, said Prime Minister Helen Clark when opening the Crown's $25 million investment in biosecurity and bio-protection technologies at Lincoln University. (25 March)

The National Centre for Advanced Bio-Protection Technologies based at Lincoln University is an 11-member collaboration of universities, Crown Research Institutes, and a whare wananga, with the four principal partners being Lincoln University, AgResearch, Crop and Food Research and Massey University.

Its work is targeted at research initiatives in four areas – biosecurity, bio­protection, agri-biotechnologies and matauranga Maori bio-protection.

"As each year goes by there seems to be a new biosecurity headache for New Zealand," said the Prime Minister.

"Our island status has given us some protection, but these days we can no longer rely on that."

The southern salt marsh mosquito, the painted apple moth, the gypsy moth, the Varroa mite were all recent examples of costly invaders, said Ms Clark.

"Challenges such as these will keep arriving and the more support we have from the universities and research institutes in dealing with them the happier we will all be."

The Government had elected to spend a lot of money on protection work, she said, and bio-security and bio-screening had become a "very, very busy area of the Biosecurity Minister's portfolio and a very busy area of Government business".

The $25 million investment in the National Centre for Advanced Bio-­Protection Technologies was "petty cash" compared with what it costs to eradicate invaders such as harmful moths and mites, said the Prime Minister.

"They are very expensive incursions," she said.

The Prime Minister acknowledged the important work being done at Lincoln University in the biosecurity, bio-protection and biotechnology areas and said she looked forward to the new centre providing sound research-based evidence on which national policy could be based.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand