A Wairarapa beef farming couple gave a brutally honest answer in front of Jacinda Ardern when asked about Government’s response to Mycoplasma bovis today.
The Prime Minister and Biosecurity Minister Damien O'Connor visited farmers Bryce and Julie Stevenson as part of today's Government update on the progress of the cattle disease control operation .
The update revealed more than $25 million has been paid out to affected farmers so far.
The Stevensons are restocking their farm after eradicating M bovis and said they're currently going through the compensation process, hoping to come out no worse off.
After Ms Ardern spoke to media outside the farm house, the couple stepped forward to the mic to take questions.
"Don't feel worried about us being here. Go for gold," Ms Ardern told them as she stood nearby.
Mr Stevenson read a prepared statement, then a 1 NEWS reporter asked him, "Do you think the Government's handled it well?
As the couple paused, Ms Ardern said, "You can be honest, you go ahead."
Mr Stevenson said he thinks there could be a lot of improvement going forward.
"They're learning from their mistakes, but it's very stressful, the process as it is."
Ms Stevenson added: "They've got no template to go from, so they're learning too."
The Government announced a dedicated and experienced compensation team has been set up by Beef + Lamb NZ and DairyNZ, and Ms Stevenson said more support around compensation will be really good.
In his prepared statement, Mr Stevenson said having M bovis confirmed on their property and being told they had to eradicate all their cattle was a real shock.
"From then on it became very stressful and was not straight forward and we didn't know what was going to happen next. Things happened a lot slower than what we would have liked and we lost control of our business.
"We found MPI, the majority of the time, to be awkward and slow, which added to our stress," he said.
Ms Stevenson said they really feel for the dairy farming families who have lost generations of genetics which are irreplaceable and lost their cows which were a big part of their life.
She thanked the community, family and friends and their case manager for their support.
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