Bio-What? is an offshoot of the New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy. Our submission of April 1999 criticised the draft Biodiversity Strategy for failing to apply standard procedures of public policy analysis to its proposals. Any sound public policy proposals should: (1) clearly state the problem in a way that establishes the need for government action; (2) establish an objective that does not pre-justify the proposed effects; (3) set out feasible options for achieving the desired objective; and (4) assess the costs and benefits of the proposed measures and their alternatives.