Damien
O’CONNOR

Primary Industries Spokesperson
3 September 2013 MEDIA STATEMENT

Ministry can’t tell the difference between fish and sheep

Nathan Guy is fighting bush fires on all sides as he tries to defend mistake after mistake by his super Ministry for Primary Industries, Labour’s Primary Industries spokesperson Damien O’Connor says.

“The Minister cautioned me last week for raising concerns about the Ministry failing to certify meat from Alliance Pukeuri for export to China. He has now confirmed to Parliament workers from the plant lost wages for three-and-a-half weeks while his Ministry reissued its export licence.

“It has now been revealed the Ministry was caught up in another bungle which saw EcoGene determine an apparent animal limb found in palm kernel expeller in May either came from a sheep or a fish.

“Either the Ministry provided incorrect samples to EcoGene or there was inadequate technology to correctly differentiate sheep and fish DNA.

“The failure of his Ministry to differentiate between a sheep and a fish has resulted in Nathan Guy’s work now being overseen by the Government’s Mr Fix-it, Steven Joyce, who holds an honorary degree in zoology.

“Nathan Guy told TVNZ recently that MPI’s budget had been boosted by $35 million this year. That is simply not true. The budget of the agencies which made up MPI before the super ministry was formed last year has been slashed by $26 million since 2009,” Damien O’Connor says.

ENDS

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