Gavan Herlihy National Agriculture Spokesperson
Sunday 13 May 2001
Progress must be made on a single food administration agency
National's Agriculture Spokesperson Gavan Herlihy today called on the Government to act with urgency in progressing the
establishment of a single Food Administration Agency inside the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
"It's totally unacceptable that Government inaction has left the reputation of the New Zealand food industry open to
risk and excessive administrative cost under the current dual system.
"New Zealand's food safety law is currently administrated by a small, under-resourced group with the Ministry of Health,
totally removed from the internationally recognised food safety expertise within the Ministry of Agriculture and
Forestry. This is a disaster waiting to happen to New Zealand's international reputation as one of the safest food
producers in the international food market.
"In 1999 National put the Food Amendment Bill before Parliament but the Labour Opposition stopped progress. The Bill
would have established a single Food Agency in MAF alongside MAF's Biosecurity Agency, which also works to assess
international risk in the closely related area of imported plant and animal matter.
"The issue of New Zealand's food safety is far too important to be put at risk by Party politics. National offers its
support to the Government to progress a single Food Agency, administered under the umbrella of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Forestry.
"The current acceptance by our international trading partners of MAF as a credible and responsible regulatory and
verification authority must not be put in jeopardy in any reorganisation.
"Internal coalition politics within the current Government, which have so far thwarted progress in setting up the much
needed single authority, cannot be allowed to continue to expose our most important industry to the continued risk of
the dual system," concluded Mr Herlihy.
Ends