Battle with bureaucracy costing plenty

By Melissa Moxon

HAMILTON - Wally Smith battled for two years to get his Hamilton homekill plant licensed, but now the rules have changed and he is $500,000 worse off and back to square one.

Mr Smith had been running a successful homekill business and in October 1997 decided to expand and build a $1 million custom killing plant (CKP) so he could slaughter other farmers' animals on his own premises instead of offering only a mobile service.

Licensing from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Maf) appeared to be going well, so he started building and finished in March this year.

But Mr Smith said Maf officials kept requiring new or repeated information and taking up to a month to respond. Consultants' fees and lost income added up to $500,000 and Mr Smith was forced to sell his farm.

"No one knows where the rules start or finish. The standards kept rising all the time, up to the top export standards," said Mr Smith, who has no idea what the latest requirements are.

The issue became a moot point on November 1, when the Animal Products Act 1999 came into force and reassigned CKPs as homekill and recreational catch service providers.

Maf officials have suggested it would take very little to upgrade the plant to an abattoir, which would allow meat to be sold on the local market.

"There's no end to the paper war. The difference between a CKP and an abattoir is the name on the top of the page," said Mr Smith, who has decided to apply for an abattoir licence.

Maf spokeswoman Judy Barker said abattoirs could be licensed within a month if the application was well prepared.

"One of the biggest problems is that people don't provide the information they were asked for or insufficient details. After that, it can go on for months or years," she said.

The president of the Abattoirs Association, Tony Forde, said the "issue of incompetence" at Maf was alive and well.

"It's difficult to tell who's responsible for what and the rules change depending on who you're speaking to. It can take years," he said.

Act has pounced on the situation as an example of excessive bureaucracy and compliance costs that are costing jobs.

Hamilton East Act candidate Gavin Denby said the plant would be employing four people if it had Maf consent to operate.

"I've gone through all the material with Maf, and no one has done anything wrong. Two years down the line, the process is still bouncing around," he said.

In the meantime, only the plant's fridge is in use, as part of Mr Smith's homekill business.