Business case kept secret

The cost benefit analysis behind the $886 million government-agriculture sector decision to try to eradicate Mycoplasma bovis is being kept secret from taxpayers picking up most of the bill.

A Herald request to the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) for a copy of the analysis is being treated by MPI as an Official Information Act request which normally means waiting nearly a month for a response, with no guarantee of full disclosure then.

When the Herald tried to clarify that the cost benefit analysis was not being made public, and if so, who had access to it, the response from an MPI spokesman was: “This has been part of the decision-making process so the decision makers have had access to this information.”

The decision to pursue a “phased” eradication programme instead of a management approach to the disease was made by the government and leaders of the dairy and beef sectors, including DairyNZ and Beef+Lamb NZ. Federated Farmers had observer status to the decision-making process.

The cost of eradication over 10 years is projected to be $886m.

Of this, $16m will be borne by farmers as loss of production and $870m is the cost of the response, including compensation to farmers.

The Government or taxpayer will meet 68 per cent of the response cost and DairyNZ and Beef+Lamb NZ will pick up 32 per cent, with the Government paying the upfront costs.

MPI expects the eradication drive to involve killing 126,000 dairy and beef cattle on top of the slaughter of around 26,000 cattle already under way.

Most of these cattle are currently healthy but are from “known and future infected farms and also highly suspect farms — those under restricted place notices”, says MPI.