Deputy Director discusses opportunities for TMBC

The Deputy Director of General Biosecurity New Zealand discusses opportunities for TMBC

Penny Nelson, Deputy Director-General for Biosecurity New Zealand joined a call with TMBC Leadership team members this week to talk about opportunities for TMBC in the post-COVID landscape. Given Penny has been in this role since February 2020, it was a good time to share with her TMBC’s programme of activities for the year and discuss how TMBC can align with Biosecurity New Zealand to further build a team of five million biosecurity champions.    

Penny also outlined some of the measures being applied to the increased courier and fast post pathway and how Biosecurity New Zealand is retaining the skills of staff from the border who have been redployed post-COVID. Members of the TMBC leadership team highlighted the opportunity to do more in the marine biosecurity space, the importance of funding surveillance and the need for strong leaderhsip in the national Ko Tātou programme. We hope this will be the first of many conversations to share information between the national approach and our local biosecurity efforts.