The Response Guide Joint Working Group met for the first time on 29-30 April. Its communique outlines what was discussed and what its next steps are.
The Response Guide Joint Working Group met for the first time on 29 and 30 April. It released the following communique after its meeting:
The GIA Response Joint Working Group (JWG) has been established with agreement from potential Signatories at the March 2014 Biosecurity Forum. It met for the first time on 29 April for a two-day facilitated workshop.
Day 1 provided context on existing response arrangements including:
- presentations and Q&A sessions led by Lois Ransom, Manager of the GIA Secretariat (on response related Deed Commitments) and Katherine Clift, Response Manager, MPI (on the existing biosecurity response system);
- an exercise to test the groups understanding of the different parts of the response system including inter-relationships; and
- discussion to review and confirm the purpose and scope of the JWG, including success criteria.
Day 2 saw the JWG work through the response initiation and establishment steps to examine the critical decision points and agree what MPI and Industry need to have in place to support responses managed under GIA.
The JWG agreed that its role is to “recommend how GIA commitments will work in the existing response system, and to recommend further work for the longer term”. The draft TOR presented at the Biosecurity Forum will be redrafted to incorporate this revised purpose and agreed outputs.
The group also agreed a set of principles to underpin any GIA response arrangement.
Two priority streams of work will be progressed by sub-groups to:
- Produce a brief introduction to the biosecurity response system that provides Signatories and potential Signatories with a clear understanding of the system and how it works, and which will form part of future training programs for response participants.
- Draft and test a 2-3 page guide that gives decision-makers the necessary information to be effective in response strategic governance roles.
These JWG documents will be circulated to potential Signatories on 24 July following their review by the IGB, for discussion and decision at the September Biosecurity Forum.
The members of the group are:
- Barry O’Neil, KVH
- Bill Dyck, NZFOA
- Chris Baddeley, MPI
- Chris Morley, DCANZ
- Ed Massey; MPI
- Gisele Irvine, representing multiple horticulture industries
- Kate Hellstrom, MPI
- Katherine Clift, MPI
- Kimberly Crewther, Dairy NZ
- Mike Butcher, Pipfruit NZ
- Moira Lymburn, MPI
- Philip Manson, NZ Winegrowers
- Trish Pearce, NZEHA
- Michael Brooks, PIANZ/EPF