UPDATED 3.32pm Forest and Bird wants New Zealand's new pest-free target to be non-party-political.

It says being free of predators should be looked at like our nuclear free policy - as a New Zealand standard.

Prime Minister John Key announced a target yesterday - to be free of rats, stoats and possums by 2050.

Forest and Bird's Kevin Hackwell said it will be of such benefit to the country.

"A conservative estimate is that pests cost us $3 billion a year in the damage they do and the costs of control. Clearly, if we don't get around to eradicating them in the near future, that's going to be a cost forever."

The Government is committing $28 million to the project.

Mr Hackwell said it's well past time the Government took some action on this.

“It's been actual National Party policy for the last three elections but it's the first time the government has formally come out and supported it as the government."

Federated Farmers said the ambitious move to make New Zealand pest free is going to need to full cooperation across the nation.

Spokesman Chris Allen said there are already elements of a joint effort - with both farmers and DOC staff taking care of their own patch, so to speak.

He said he hopes the venture will involve both cooperation and investment in innovation - for example using GPS mounted on traps.

"Someone can look after 500 traps or 1500 traps because they get a text message to say one's gone off. Or we can use other smart technologies, which could be some sort of gene editing, where they can turn on or off the ability for a predator to breed.

Mr Allen said it's an ambitious move because it takes a continuous effort to stop the likes of rats, stoats, and possums from bouncing back.

"We will need really smart, innovative, mechanical means. Whether there's some chemicals or gene technologies that we can use. We'll need everything to make this an achievable target but I'm sure that the farmers and the rest of the community will be up to the challenge for this one."

Chris Allen says nationwide cooperation and big investment in innovation will make or break New Zealand's ability to get rid of pests once and for all.

But the Taxpayer's Union said the Government's pest eradication announcement is nothing more than a "legacy project."

Executive director Jordan Williams said it rings similar with former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer's announcement in 1990, when he promised "full employment" by 1995.

He said it's just the government putting a politically attractive goal ahead of costs, and ignoring tradeoffs.

Labour leader Andrew Little said he'd need to see more detail, but in principle it sounds like a reasonable thing to do.

"I know there's some great community efforts going into pest eradication and environmentally friendly ways of doing it too. If it sustains and supports those efforts, of people that know what they're doing, then that's a good thing.

"Anything that's going to enhance our conservation programme and conservation mission, in principle, it sounds like a reasonable thing to do."

WWF New Zealand said it looks forward to working with the Government to completely eradicate rats, stoats and possums.

It said New Zealand's native species are some of the most endangered in the world - with many at risk of extinction because of habitat destruction, pollution, introduced predators and other human-induced threats.

Landcare research's Dr Andrea Byrom said some of the money will fund new research in the sector, which is very exciting.