A bill to deliver electronic national identification and tracing of livestock has passed its third and final reading in Parliament.
The National Animal Identification and Tracing (Nait) Bill was a "significant step" in protecting farmers in the international marketplace and strengthening New Zealand's biosecurity system, Primary Industries Minister David Carter said in a statement.
The Nait Bill set out the legal framework for the collection of information on livestock, including their location and movement history throughout their lifetime. It also outlined the governance arrangement and powers for the Nait organisation.
"With most other agricultural producing nations already having computerised tracing of individual animals, New Zealand simply cannot afford to lag behind.
"Nait is effectively an insurance policy to support our high livestock health status and biosecurity infrastructure, but can be used to further improve productivity and on-farm management," Mr Carter said.
Implementation of the controversial scheme will begin for cattle on July 1 - it was to have been November 1 last year but the date was deferred - and for deer by March 1 next year.
Last year, Federated Farmers said it was still "highly dubious of the claimed benefits" of the scheme and it would maintain very close scrutiny of its effectiveness and cost.
Animal identification spokesman Anders Crofoot said this month the organisation had worked hard to ensure whatever became law actually worked.
Nait was "getting there", but there was still a "heck of a lot of work" to be done before and after its launch, Mr Crofoot said.
DairyNZ welcomed the adoption of the Bill, describing it as a milestone in bringing animal traceability for the dairy industry to reality.
The industry would be watching carefully to ensure the final scheme worked effectively and efficiently and was not overly costly, chief executive Tim Mackle said.
