Kaye Nikki: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKaye Nikki: General Debate[Sitting date: 07 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12448. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NIKKI KAYE (Minister for Food Safety):I follow on from the Hon Tim Groser and the Hon Nathan Guy in reflecting on the incident relating to the potential contamination of whey products. The first thing I would say and that all members would I think agree with is that we understand how serious this is. That is why from the moment the Government was informed we have swung into action. There have been many streams of work. The first has been around ensuring that the public is protected. What has been frustrating as has been mentioned by a number of my colleagues is that the information did change. But what I can tell the mums and dads of New Zealand is that we have put significant resource into supporting the company that did the recall to ensure that the public information campaign is there. We have committed money to that and we are doing that.The second thing I want to reassure the public about is that the Director-General of Health and the rest of the response team which covers the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade the Ministry of Health and a number of other Government agencies have been working hard to try to resolve this incident. It has been hard because of the changing nature of that information but what I want to assure people about is that today the director-general will be giving an update on the issues of traceability and verification which I believe is really important to ensuring that people have that confidence. This is a time when the Government needs to operate on a few fundamental principles and I believe that we have shown those principles. They are protecting the public and they are transparency and openness but also doing everything that we can regardless of what has been presented to us to ensure as much certainty as possible. So there is a process under way that the Ministry for Primary Industries is focused on.The other important point that has been raised by the Prime Minister and a number of other Ministers is that we understand that for a country that for generations has beenproviding safe food this is a serious incident because it does dent people’s confidence in us. That is why we are committed to asking those questions at the appropriate point and to putting a process in place to ensure that all New Zealanders but also people across the world have that same level of confidence in our food safety systems.What I want to do is make this point. The first thing is that our food safety systems are made up of significant investment in terms of science testing and standards but I do believe there are questions that need to be asked and they will be asked at the appropriate time. What is important to me are a couple of things. One is ensuring that the parents in New Zealand and abroad get the best possible information when we get it to ensure that they can keep their families safe. That is why whether it is through the social media campaign the newspaper advertising that is planned or radio advertising we are doing everything we can to support that company to get that information out there. Also obviously the moment that this was informed to us we began getting information to posts in other countries to ensure that their regulators could do what they could to protect the families abroad. I think that is a really important point.It has been a difficult time. I am confident that we will rebound from this. I do believe that the Government has shown an incredible amount of fortitude in terms of the number of Ministers who have been involved and have worked really hard across the Government to do everything we can to mitigate this incident. I just want to reassure the people of New Zealand that not only do we take it seriously but we are focused on protecting the public. When the appropriate time happens we will ensure that those questions are answered so that we can continue to retain our reputation as one of the most trusted nations in the world in terms of food. Thank you.