About this notification
Because all major banks in New Zealand stopped processing cheques in July 2021, domestic biosecurity and fisheries infringement offences can no longer be paid for by cheque.
To keep our infringement and reminder notices accurate and up to date, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is removing the cheque payment option and other outdated administrative details from biosecurity and fisheries infringement offences regulations.
This is an advisory notice not a consultation. However, you are welcome to comment on the changes.
If you have comments on the proposed changes, email info@mpi.govt.nz
What is changing?
MPI is using this opportunity to amend minor administrative details in the forms, to ensure they are accurate and up to date.
We intend to amend the formatting of biosecurity and fisheries infringement offences and reminder notice form regulations with the National Animal Identification and Tracing (Infringement Offences) Regulations 2012, and the Animal Welfare (Forms) Regulations 1990.
Proposed amendments
In Form 1 and Form 2 of Schedule 2 of the Biosecurity (Infringement Offences) Regulations 2010:
- removing references to cheques being accepted as a form of payment
- updating the ministry’s name to the Ministry for Primary Industries/Manatū Ahu Matua
- replacing our postal address with a blank space, which will allow biosecurity officers to fill out MPI’s current address
- removing references to "PAX", and "Remittance advice", as they are now outdated terms and no longer necessary
- fixing an error in the ‘Defences’ part of the information section of non-border infringement offences notice. Form 1 of Schedule 2 of the Biosecurity Infringement Regulations) refers to a person having a defence if they had paid the infringement fee before or within 14 working days. This should be 28 days.
- aligning the formatting structure to reflect other recently developed infringement forms that MPI administers.
In Schedule 2 and Schedule 3 of the Fisheries (Infringement Offences) Regulations 2001, and Form 1 and Form 2 in Schedule 20 of the Fisheries (Amateur Fishing) Regulations 2013:
- removing references to cheques being accepted as a form of payment
- updating the ministry’s name to the Ministry for Primary Industries/Manatū Ahu Matua
- removing references to the "location code" or "offence code" as they are now outdated terms and no longer necessary
- aligning the formatting structure to reflect other recently developed infringement forms that MPI administers.
Links to the regulations on the NZ Legislation website
Biosecurity (Infringement Offences) Regulations 2010
