The air
passenger said the gumboots were clean; the goat manure and
the snail said otherwise…
Ministry for Primary
Industries (MPI) border staff issued the French passenger
with a $400 fine earlier this month for failing to declare
biosecurity risk goods when he arrived at Auckland airport
on a flight from Papua New Guinea.
The passenger initially
said he had scrubbed the boots with bleach. On inspection
they were found to be contaminated with manure from a goat
farm. An MPI quarantine inspector found the snail inside the
boots when cleaning them.
“The boots posed high
biosecurity risk to New Zealand. If they had only been used
on the street in the city, it would have been okay. But, as
they came from a farm, they could have been carrying
diseases with potential to have a devastating impact on our
farming industries,” says MPI team manager Paul
Ruttley.
Mr Ruttley says it is fairly common for MPI
quarantine inspectors to intercept dirty boots, but very
unusual to have a hitch-hiking snail.
MPI has found cane
toads from Australia inside boots in the
past.
If you're using Scoop for work, your organisation needs to pay a small license fee with Scoop Pro. We think that's fair, because your organisation is benefiting from using our news resources. In return, we'll also give your team access to pro news tools and keep Scoop free for personal use, because public access to news is important!
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture tends to be hostile to Islam when we’re sitting in the dark, with popcorn. Any number of movie examples come to mind, beginning with Rudolf Valentino’s role (over a century ago) as the romantic Arab hero in The Sheik... More
Government: One-stop Shop Major Projects On The Fast Track The Coalition Government’s new one-stop-shop fast track consenting regime for regional and national projects of significance will cut red tape and make it easier for New Zealand to build the infrastructure and major projects needed to get the country moving again... More
Government: GPS 2024: Over $20 Billion To Get Transport Back On Track Transport Minister Simeon Brown has released the draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport, outlining the Coalition Government’s plan to build and maintain a transport system that enables people to get to where they need to go quickly and safely... More
Winston Peters has announced NZ is providing a further $5M to respond to the extreme humanitarian need in Gaza and the West Bank. “The impact of the Israel-Hamas conflict on civilians is absolutely appalling," he said... More
Judith Collins has announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister Jason Scott McHerron as a High Court Judge. Justice McHerron graduated from the University of Otago with a BA in English Literature in 1994 and an LLB in 1996... More