Goodhew JoFOOD SAFETY LAW REFORM BILLFirst ReadingHon JO GOODHEW (Minister for Food Safety): I move That the Food Safety Law Reform Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Primary Production Committee to consider the bill. Today I present the Food Safety Law Reform Bill to the House. The bill marks an important milestone in putting the whey protein contamination (WPC)—or WPC incident as it is commonly called—behind us. The House is well aware of the impact that this false botulism scare had on our dairy exports. The bill addresses the recommendations made by the independent inquiry into the incident that require statute change to implement. This bill illustrates the Government's commitment to ensuring the safety and suitability of food which is vitally important for the health of consumers both in New Zealand and overseas and our international trade reputation. It demonstrates a commitment to continuous improvement in the regulatory system that underpins the food and beverage industry. Food and beverage products make a significant contribution to our economy accounting for 60 percent of our merchandise exports and generating $27 billion of export income in 2015. The industry is a large employer—domestically employing approximately 79000 people. The bill aims to protect human health and maintain New Zealand's reputation as a supplier of safe and suitable food both domestically and internationally by ensuring all steps have been taken to address the recommendations of the independent inquiry. The bill will strengthen the legislative framework by applying changes across the three main Acts governing food safety: the Food Act the Animal Products Act and the Wine Act. The omnibus nature of the bill will help business by applying similar requirements under each of the three Acts where possible. For example the bill puts some existing enforcement tools from the recently passed Food Act into the Animal Products Act and the Wine Act so that the regulators have similar tools available to encourage behaviour change and deal swiftly with operators who do not comply irrespective of the food type. The inquiry recommended this approach. One of the areas being strengthened is risk-based plans. These plans are the foundation of our food safety system setting out how operators will take responsibility for their own risk-management processes. The bill will enable regulations to be made to set out which parts of these risk-based plans must be supplied to the regulator for registration. These provisions help address the inquiry's concern that the regulator does not always hold full information on risk-management plans. The bill strengthens the framework for food product traceability. Traceability and recall systems are crucial for businesses to be able to respond quickly during a food safety incident using methods that they and the regulators know will work. In addition the bill clarifies some of the roles and powers of the Ministry for Primary Industries during a food safety response including giving the ministry a statutory role in contingency planning. The Director-General of the Ministry for Primary Industries will have a new power to require disclosure of information held by a party that provides services to a food business. The power is needed to make sure the specific situation that led to the botulism scare does not reoccur. The power will be able to be used only when identifying and responding to a food safety incident that may have serious health impact. The supplier of information disclosed under this provision will have immunity from criminal prosecution unless the information they provide is false. The bill makes clear that verifiers who check whether a business is complying with the obligations are primarily accountable to the regulator when carrying out their duties. This will address any criticism that verifiers can become too close to the businesses they are checking. The amendments I have mentioned so far link to the inquiry's commentary on what went wrong during the whey protein contamination incident and will improve the system as a whole. The bill also takes the opportunity to make some other enhancements to support modern business practice and help to futureproof our legislation. To that end a provision in the Food Act that permits the Ministry for Primary Industries to use automated electronic systems is being replicated under the Animal Products Act and the Wine Act. The director-general will also be able to set the form and manner in which information must be provided to allow more electronic transactions. In line with the Government's aspiration for continuous improvement the bill improves the clarity of some existing delegated legislative provisions to assist future decisions on the making of regulations and notices. This is an opportunity for good regulatory stewardship. The bill also provides for some technical amendments to harmonise similar requirements across the system clarify the intent of some existing provisions and correct minor errors of interpretation. I consider the bill will enhance the delivery of safe and suitable food to consumers as well as protecting New Zealand's wider trade interests and reputation. Although the botulism scare was a false alarm we want to ensure that our legislative framework continues to prevent as many food safety incidents as possible and has the mechanisms and tools to deal quickly and effectively with any situations that arise. The bill is a further step in this Government's ongoing programme to improve food safety legislation. We need a food system that supports innovation drives value-add and encourages more food businesses to export. There were 38 recommendations to the Government from the inquiry into the WPC incident. The Government accepted them all. The bill and the proposed legislation complete the structural realignment necessary to learn from make change in respect of and move on from an incident that damaged New Zealand's reputation but gave us the opportunity to be even better. I commend this bill to the House.