Compensation for cattle disease to top $100m
Compensation for farmers affected so far by the cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis could cost more than $100 million, National’s Primary Industries spokesman Nathan Guy says.
But the government would probably soon decide it had other spending priorities, and farmers would be told to learn to live with the disease, he said. The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has added a further two South Island dairy farms confirmed infected with M. bovis, bringing the total to 23. They are in Southland and the Waitaki district. Guy said compensation for farmers had effectively stopped, even though retrospective payments might be being made. ‘‘Culling has stopped, therefore compensation has stopped. They’re ... waiting for the advisory group to decide whether they can eradicate the disease. The problem is it’s going to cost over $100m to compensate if they re-continue the culling process,’’ Guy said. Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said ‘‘all compensation claims are being processed by MPI as they were received and have never been put on hold’’. MPI said it had increased the number of properties issued with restricted place notices from 34 to 38. Last month an MPI spokeswoman said affected farmers would be eligible for compensation for verifiable losses from any of their normal income streams. She confirmed that Aad and Wilma van Leeuwen, the couple on whose farm the disease was first confirmed in July last year, had received some compensation ‘‘and other claims are under assessment’’. Guy said he had heard the van Leeuwens received ‘‘some quite sizeable cheques [last] week’’.
In a recent column, O’Connor said eradication still remained the Government’s goal, but after the nationwide bulk milk testing was completed, ‘‘some tough decisions will need to be made about the ongoing response’’.