The Department of Conservation is on track to outsmart rats, stoats, and possums in New Zealand's bid to be predator free.

New Zealand's committed to a new goal of becoming completely pest-free by 2050 - but Conservation Minister Maggie Barry said they've been working towards it for years.

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She told Mike Hosking DoC has honed its pest-killing skills, and is world class in what it does.

"They've recorded sounds of baby rats playing, and then that lures in the stoats, because they love baby rats, and then you get the stoats you see. But you've got to understand what triggers the predator, and DoC's been doing that for probably the last 50 years."

The minister said people used to say you couldn't get rats of islands - but that turned out to be wrong, as did claims that you could only eradicate pests from small islands.

A crown-owned company called Predator Free New Zealand is being set up, which will enable private and philanthropic organisations to help fund the effort.

The Government has committed $28 million to the venture.

LISTEN ABOVE: Conservation Minister Maggie Barry speaks with Mike Hosking