What’s The Issue
What’s At Stake
What We Need
Our Five Priorities

Five priorities for animal and plant health regulation have been developed by the industry groups, manufacturers and distributors who are members of Animal and Plant Health New Zealand.

We will assess the outcomes of the review against these five priorities:

1: Right touch regulation

  • Enhance alignment with international best practice, risk approaches and right touch legislative design
  • Amend the purpose of primary legislation to consider risks, benefits, trade security and risk proportionality
  • Enhance use of right touch regulation measures to free up the backlog e.g. approval of Group Standard for Trial products and self-assessable changes
  • Enable and acknowledge industry led initiatives for managing risk

2: Clear rules, roles, responsibilities

  • Clarify roles between regulators, government and industry and end users
  • Aligned to common purpose, ways of working and risk approaches
  • Regulators focused on “core”, delivering the basics well for product approvals
  • Agreed strategy to address the backlog
  • Clear legislation, guidance and data protection provisions on requirements, process and expected timeframes that ensures an equal playing field

3:  Balanced risk mindset

  • Establish an independent strategic risk advisory group (SRAG) to support a risk reset
  • A risk strategy for product approvals aligned to international best risk practices
  • A risk triage and approval pathways system for product categories (complimenting GE regulation work)
  • Aligned regulator risk thresholds and balanced, risk proportionate decision-making
  • A strategy to support assessors and ensure access to the latest science, risk assessment models and tools

4: Acknowledge security and supply risks for New Zealand

  • An effective product approvals process with aligned data protection provisions are essential for security and supply
  • Legislation, regulatory practice and regulator models accommodate the realities of New Zealand’s size in the market, national security, trade dependency and supply risks
  • An approvals framework that incentivises local research, access to vital innovation and niche products for New Zealand

5: Transparency, performance reporting and return on investment

  • Address legislative gaps and strengthen provisions and expectations on principles, timeframes and performance reporting
  • A clear performance reporting framework on how sector funding is used and outcomes delivered for that
  • Focus sector funding on delivering product approvals
  • Agree government and industry funding agreement settings
  • Consider the role of industry, independence and technical expertise in supporting governance and decision making