Current and former staff at the Ministry for Primary Industries, as well as expert witnesses, have taken to the stand in the third week of the Kiwifruit Claim in New Zealand's Wellington High Court.
212 claimants are seeking accountability and compensation from MPI for over NZ$376m for losses suffered by growers and the industry after the devastating outbreak of the disease PSA-V in November 2010 spread. Stage 1 of the case is set to establish whether MPI owed a duty of care to kiwifruit growers and whether they breached that duty of care in relation to the PSA incursion. MPI have denied most of the claim.
The Plaintiffs called a number of people who worked for MPI around the time permits were issued to Kiwi Pollen to import pollen from China. The focus for these witnesses was on MPI’s systems and processes for assessing the biosecurity risks and import requirements around pollen, and determining what is permitted to be imported into New Zealand.
Veronica Herrera was questioned on her involvement in the decision to review import requirements for pollen and had relevant knowledge of the risks associated with PSA, Michele Dickson handled Kiwi Pollen’s initial application to import pollen into NZ and responded to it, while Wayne Hartley was involved in issuing import permits to Kiwi Pollen.
Other experts included Giorgio Balestra, a plant pathologist/Associate Professor at University of Tuscia, Vertibo, Italy. He gave evidence, via audio-visual link, about the characteristics and symptoms of PSA and the transmission of PSA through pollen. While Sam Beckett is an epidemiologist based in Australia, with particular expertise in biosecurity and import risk analysis. He spent more than a day on the stand, giving evidence about the characteristics of PSA and conclusions by MAF regarding the PHEL review.
Earlier, the court heard from staff at Kiwi Pollen, the company who sourced the pollen from China, including its directors Jill Hamlyn and Graeme Crawshaw. They gave evidence on the company's operations and the pollen shipment that contained anthers. Amanda Lyons, who was manager from 2009, was also called to give evidence, of how Kiwi Pollen dealt with its imported pollen.
Tony Moore, owned premises that Kiwi Pollen rented and did some contract work. He discussed the movement of the machines used by Kiwi Pollen between the pollen room and the two orchards, where PSA was first discovered.
Kiwifruit Claim spokesman John Cameron says this evidence provided is crucial in showing how PSA got into the country and how it spread.
“Kiwi Pollen’s evidence establishes the multiple ways in which the infected shipment of plant material could have spread PSA the very nature of pollen means it is very easily spread on the pollen extraction machines, bees, the wind, on orchard equipment, and vehicles,” he said.
Photo: File picture of kiwifruit flowers, delivered to mill for processing
The Crown, on behalf of MPI, is expected to start presenting its evidence from next week. Pre-trial, it maintained that it acted appropriately in its treatment of PSA as a biosecurity threat and acted in accordance with its international obligations and with scientific knowledge available at the time.
The trial is expected to run for 12 weeks in total.
