MAF review of border operations retains regional staff

MAF Biosecurity New Zealand (MAFBNZ) announced today the outcome of the review of its operations at the border.

Final decisions were made after a period of consultation with staff, which was extended to reflect the views of many submissions that MAF should maintain as many frontline staff as possible.

The outcome of the review is a reduction of 54.6 positions (33.5 vacancies and 21.1 filled positions), which is less than the original proposal to reduce capacity by 60 positions.

MAFBNZ Director Passenger Clearance, Theresa Morrissey, says a balance between managing the financial deficit of MAFBNZ’s border operations and maintaining frontline staff while ensuring the same level of protection at the border has been achieved.

“Our objective in reviewing border operations was to balance the budget over three years and ensure our work force is more flexible and better positioned to meet the needs of the future border operating environment.

“In order to keep jobs in the smaller regional sites we have looked for ways to better utilise staff time and work more efficiently. Staff will be retained in newly-created Biosecurity Inspector roles that will be flexible and work across both the cargo and passenger operations. Staff will maintain a base site but will work out of other sites to provide additional resource to service industry requirements.”

Resources will be centralised into three hubs: Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Staff and services will also be retained in the following regional locations: Whangarei; Tauranga; Hamilton; Gisborne; Napier; New Plymouth; Palmerston North; Nelson; Timaru; Dunedin; Queenstown; and, Invercargill.