Under the Lens

No one has said we don't need biosecurity. There are ways to do this. There are people with knowledge, there are communities who care, and there are ways to secure and protect the unique landscapes of Aotearoa.

Season two is done. No guests today, just Amanda, Peter, and Nick around the table reflecting on a season of biosecurity conversations.

Is the biosecurity system fit for purpose? What works and what does not? And what did this season reveal that they did not expect? One question kept surfacing, was the system designed to protect our unique environment, or was it built for something else entirely?

And they want to hear from you. What should season three look like?

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Chapters:
00:00 Optimism and Next Steps
00:56 Final Episode Setup
02:23 Reimagining Without Limits
03:17 Start From Scratch
09:17 Define the Real Aim
14:09 Inclusive Leadership and Feedback
19:58 Acceptance and Risk Trade offs
22:27 Who Pays for Biosecurity
27:43 Tourism and Conservation Value
29:42 Guest Takeaways Tease
30:27 Iwi Pride In Work
31:39 Stop Exploiting Volunteers
33:40 Data Is About People
38:49 Break Data Gatekeeping
41:36 Ask Better Questions
44:47 Publics Not Public
48:48 From Reaction To Strategy
51:23 Reasons For Optimism
55:42 Wrap Up And Next Series
58:08 Southland Shoutouts
59:34 Subscribe And Goodbye
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Tame Malcolm (Te Arawa: Ngāti Tarāwhai, Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Ngararanui, Ngāti Whakaue) has spent his career getting people excited about the bush, the birds, and the ecosystems that make Aotearoa unique. Because as he puts it, no one protects what they don't know. In this episode the General Manager of Te Arawa Lakes Trust explores what biosecurity could look like if we wiped the slate clean and started from something uniquely ours, grounded in Aotearoa's own identity, culture, and knowledge.

From defining what a pest actually is, to the tension around 1080, to what whakapapa has to do with how we understand ecosystems, this is one of those conversations that reframes some of our assumptions about pest management.

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Chapters
00:00 Reimagining Biosecurity
00:51 Meet The Guest
02:11 Start From Scratch
04:58 People And Place Connection
06:43 Growing Up In The Bush
09:20 What Makes A Pest
11:50 Wasps And Values Debate
14:44 1080 And Social Licence
17:49 Mobilising Communities
19:35 Jobs For Nature Lessons
25:08 Funding Cliffs And Capacity
28:09 Māori Biosecurity Network
32:38 Mātauranga Meets Science
33:58 Knowledge And Context
34:19 Indigenous Knowledge Backlash
36:11 Beyond Western Science
37:24 Whakapapa Explained Simply
39:00 Relational Ecology Shift
41:45 Whakapapa In Pest Control
43:35 Policy Barriers And Permits
45:14 Social Media To Action
50:08 Biosecurity Wins And Gaps
51:25 Funding Threats And Priorities
54:12 PhD Writing Survival Tips
58:44 Wrapping Up And Thanks
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Biology has changed. The amount of biological data we can now collect has exploded, from automated sensors at our borders to genomic data tracking where pests come from. But are we maximising the opportunities to gather insight that this data could offer?

In this episode computational biologist Dr Murray Cox joins Amanda and Peter to explore what biological data could do for our biosecurity system. His answer might surprise you. It is not about more sophisticated technology. It is about fixing the structure underneath all of it.

If you could reimagine the biosecurity system in Aotearoa, what would that look like? Murray has a view. And it is simpler than you might think.

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Chapters:

00:00 Rethinking Biosecurity Structure
00:51 Podcast Intro and Guest
02:08 Data Transforming Biosecurity
02:45 Where Bio Data Comes From
03:40 What Counts as Data
05:48 Linking Messy Datasets
08:06 Ownership Privacy and Access
10:07 LINZ and Open Data Model
12:55 Why Data Stays Siloed
14:07 Benefits of Integration
16:57 Genomics and Global Sharing
19:27 NZ Examples and Duplication
22:26 Asking Better Questions
25:36 AI as Literature Scout
28:52 Access and Secure AI Systems
29:45 National LLM Reality Check
30:18 AI Hype and Job Fears
30:57 AI for Specific Tasks
33:07 Proactive Biosecurity Future
34:20 Fragmented System Fix
36:48 Data Differences Don’t Matter
38:03 Genetics for Border Breaches
41:00 Windborne Threats and Surveillance
43:03 Cost Benefit and Cheaper Tech
44:14 Commercial Data and Access
46:52 Federated Data Ecosystem
49:50 Structural Reform and Models
51:06 Closing Thanks
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Biosecurity is often thought of as systems and agencies. But communities, people, and places are also doing the long term work, often with little resourcing and even less say in how it gets done.

In this episode Dr Sylvia Nissen, political scientist and human geographer at Lincoln University, joins Amanda and Peter to explore what role communities actually play in biosecurity responses, where the system falls short, and what a more community embedded approach might look like.

If we are talking shared responsibility, is there shared resourcing?

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00:00 Reimagining Biosecurity
00:51 Podcast Welcome
01:29 Meet Dr Sylvia Nissen
02:35 System Today vs Ideal
04:01 Communities in Response
06:44 Defining Community Publics
08:27 Command and Control Limits
13:07 Resourcing and Burnout
17:21 Biosecurity System Overview
19:12 Trade Driven Origins
26:52 Conservation Gets Sidelined
29:44 Patchwork Policy Problems
30:19 Community Conservation Disconnect
32:02 Funding That Lasts
33:34 Motivation and Authority
35:14 Crisis Response Lessons
38:50 Handover Gaps and Boundaries
41:59 Rebuilding Trust Spaces
45:59 Real Time Information Networks
52:14 Community Embedded Biosecurity
54:47 Reimagining the System
56:05 Closing Thanks and Wrap
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Season two of Under the Lens is here, and we are starting somewhere unexpected. Fellow co-hosts Amanda and Peter turn the lens on Nick Waipara, drawing on his 25 years in biosecurity to ask what a reimagined system would actually look like.

From the kauri dieback story and the community networks that first raised the alarm, to the gaps in our science system and the feast and famine of community funding, Nick is candid about where the system falls short and hopeful about where it is heading.

If you see something unusual out there in the environment, tell someone. Your observations could make the difference between a successful biosecurity response and an unsuccessful one. iNaturalist is a great place to start.

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Chapters:
00:00 Magic Wand Biosecurity
00:37 Season Two Kickoff
03:09 Sticks Versus Carrots
05:50 Research Ready Response
07:46 Trust Networks First
08:42 Kauri Dieback Alarm
14:19 Embedding Communities
17:52 Nick Origin Story
22:04 Reactive Funding Gaps
27:11 Skills Succession Crisis
30:24 Local Knowledge Wins
33:08 Vanishing Experts
34:41 Science Must Be Public
38:19 Communication Skills Shift
41:37 Building Community Trust
42:26 How Councils Manage Pests
44:51 Research Behind Policy Fights
51:46 Biosecurity Action Plan Future
56:06 International Links Local Weeds
59:27 Final Advice Report Sightings
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