• Government pilots AI tool to speed up biosecurity import standards

• ACT promises to transfer game animal management from DOC to hunters

• NZ shearers lose Wales test series by less than one point

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Government pilots AI tool to speed up biosecurity import standards

The Government is piloting an artificial intelligence tool to modernise how import health standards are developed, with a four-month trial underway to test whether it can deliver faster, more consistent biosecurity assessments without cutting corners.

Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says the current process for developing import health standards — the rules goods must meet before entering New Zealand — has not kept pace with modern trade and innovation.

The AI tool would take on document-heavy work while key decisions remain with Biosecurity New Zealand experts. Hoggard says the goal is to free up staff time and improve consistency, not reduce the quality of assessments.

For farmers and growers, the wider reform programme — including live plant import system reform — is expected to improve access to new plant genetics and reduce unnecessary restrictions on productivity.

ACT promises to transfer game animal management from DOC to hunters

ACT is promising to transfer responsibility for game animal management on conservation land from DOC to the Game Animal Council, with full funding — giving hunters formal authority over the animals and landscapes they already manage on the ground.

The policy, announced at the weekend’s Hunting and Wildlife Expo, also includes multi-year funding contracts for community groups maintaining backcountry huts, improved hunting access to public land and new protections against interference with lawful hunts including through drones and helicopters.

ACT conservation spokesperson Cameron Luxton says DOC cannot manage New Zealand's conservation estate alone, pointing to more than two-thousand-three-hundred hut closure alerts since 2021 and a maintenance backlog community groups are already filling at a fraction of the cost.

Deputy leader Nicole McKee says hunters have spent generations managing game animals, controlling predators and clearing tracks — but Government still treats them as a problem rather than a conservation asset.

ACT would also open the Voluntary Nature Credits Market to accredited hunting groups, rewarding verified conservation outcomes.

NZ shearers lose Wales test series by less than one point

New Zealand shearers Jack Fagan and Hemi Braddick have gone down to Wales by just point-nine of a point in the deciding test at the Corwen Shears in North Wales, handing Wales a three-one series win on the Wools of New Zealand UK Tour.

Gethin Lewis claimed the day for Wales with the best time, shearing twenty lambs in eleven minutes fifty-three seconds — nine seconds ahead of Fagan. Braddick had the best quality work on the board, averaging less than one penalty per lamb, finishing just over half a point behind Lewis overall.

The result reverses the earlier series in New Zealand, where Fagan and Toa Henderson beat the same Welsh pairing three-nil across tests at Aria, Pukekohe and Taumarunui.