Whaitiri MekaMEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): Tēnā koe Mr Deputy Speaker. E ngā mema o Te Whare nei tēnā tātou katoa. I am happy to take a short call on the first reading of the Food Safety Law Reform Bill. Like my learned colleague the Hon Damien O'Connor said Labour will be supporting this and looks forward to closer examination at the select committee. This is an omnibus bill that seeks to make improvements and enhancements to three Acts governing the food safety system and strengthen New Zealand's reputation as a supplier of safe and suitable food in the domestic and international markets. The bill was created largely to implement the recommendations from the Government Inquiry into the Whey Protein Concentrate Contamination Incident. From reading quickly the actual inquiry I notice that the recommendations—nine in fact were actually made. I thought it was important to bring the recommendations made by the independent review to the House to help enhance the purpose of this bill. So the first recommendation talks about the ministry in consultation with the dairy industry and verifiers" in terms of revising "the rules for non-routine reworking that requires a product disposal request". The first recommendation also talks about ensuring "the industry's strict compliance with reporting times for product disposal". It also talks about continuing to "strengthen its monitoring and auditing activities". The second recommendation says: "The ministry should continue its work to ensure readiness for a food safety response including: Finalising its food incident protocol …; Undertaking regular exercises/simulations …; [and] Ensuring staff are fully trained …". The third recommendation touches on food incidents: "In any food incident the ministry should: Start and document a risk assessment …". It should also "Document the use of statutory powers" and "Co-ordinate with all relevant parties to ensure a single integrated response." The fourth recommendation is that "The ministry should re-establish a group of scientific experts along the lines of the previous [New Zealand Food Safety Authority] Academy." The fifth recommendation is that "The law should be amended to give the ministry a specific statutory power to compel disclosure of relevant information (including test results) needed to respond effectively to a food safety incident." The sixth recommendation is that "The ministry should receive targeted funding to ensure it: Has the resources …; [and] Completes the much-needed reform of dairy regulations." The seventh recommendation is that "The law should be amended to make clear what tests must be conducted in accredited laboratories." The eighth recommendation is that "Industry participants should be required to seek approval from the ministry when no accredited laboratory or validated method is available for diagnostic testing". Finally the ninth recommendation is that "The ministry the New Zealand Food Safety Science and Research Centre (in the process of being established) and laboratories should collaborate to establish test and maintain: Mechanisms for sourcing controls …; A global register of accredited laboratories …; [and] Arrangements (including customs and biosecurity clearances) …". These are highly technical recommendations but they clearly come from people very committed to ensuring that in New Zealand we have the best world-class food safety system. The bill makes multiple amendments in relation to food control plans which are generally required for high-risk businesses that deal with food such as restaurants. The botulism scare which was touched on by previous speakers absolutely damaged New Zealand's reputation as a safe food producer on the international stage. It also exposed major failings in ministerial oversight competency and the Ministry for Primary Industries' processes. As touched on by our spokesperson on food safety Labour called for an independent food safety authority at the time.When we look at these nine recommendations—they do talk about adequately resourcing the sector to ensure that we have the most robust systems but in terms of the independency to ensure that not only do we have the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) laying down the policies and also having some independent authority to ensure that we are implementing policing and monitoring correctly none of the recommendations actually touch on that. I would be interested to hear from those submitters who may have a view on that particular point. Labour would separate out the responsibilities as I have touched on to ensure that we do have an independent body to ensure a robust independence and that autonomy of decision making is upheld. Labour does not support the current situation where MPI is both the regulator and the enforcement agency for food safety standards. We want to ensure that responsibility for food safety is clearly not compromised and we want to ensure that reviews that are meant to be done are done.The bill addresses the recommendations of the independent Government inquiry like I have mentioned of the whey protein concentrate contamination incident and it needs statute change to implement. The bill makes improvements and enhancements to the three Acts. The bill itself is made up of four parts. The parts make amendments to the Food Act 2014 amendments to the Animal Products Act 1999 Part 3 talks about amendments to the Wine Act 2003 and lastly Part 4 talks about the consequential amendments to other enactments.The key features of the bill are the new requirements for risk-based plans and programmes where businesses are likely to see new requirements in relation to the form and manner in which risk-based plans and programmes must be supplied to the regulator. In addition businesses will be required to provide copies of their plans and programmes to the relevant verification agency and retain copies. Another purpose of the bill is traceability and what is called recall regulations. New regulations under the bill would set new traceability and recall requirements that will apply when a food safety incident takes place. Another part of the bill is stronger verification where the bill clarifies that the primary accountability of recognised persons and agencies when carrying out their functions is to the regulator and it enables information that is relevant to the competency of the accredited agencies to be passed to the regulator. The bill also provides for verification regulations to where necessary apply to businesses other than operators using risk-management plans and programmes. Lastly the bill talks about stronger enforcement. The bill updates the enforcement tools in the Animal Products Act 1999 and the Wine Act 2003 to bring them into line with the more recent Food Act 2014. This change standardises compliance methods across the food safety system. When a food safety incident does occur the bill will give the director-general increased statutory powers to respond require information and inform the public. The bill also modernises the food regulatory system by allowing for the use of automated electronic systems for service delivery and transactions such as issuing export certifications and providing office assurances. Like I said Labour looks forward to this bill being properly scrutinised at the select committee process. I commend this bill to the House."