Tirikatene Rino: Food Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTirikatene Rino: Food Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 14 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17859. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): I am pleased to speak on Part 2 of the Food Bill. This is really the guts some of the core provisions in terms of the new risk management approach under the Food Bill. We know what those measures are. As the Minister for Food Safety explained earlier there is a sliding scale of measures that food businesses will have to comply with based on whether they are high risk and the types of foods they produce. At its most fundamental level there are the food control plans of which there are two types. There is the template plan which I am sure will be very helpful for those particular industries that fall within that category right through to individualised plans. Then it cascades through to other measures such as the national programmes and monitor programmes and a lot of that detail will be implemented by way of regulations once the Act has come into force.But I want to focus on the most very basic level. This is not even about just food businesses. It is around the food handler guidance that is also promoted through this legislation. This piece of legislation impacts on all food businesses but it also applies especially to Māori and maraes. I know that maraes are the heartbeat of the hapū of the particular community or hapū or whānau that they represent. They are the actual engine room of the marae complex. It is not actually the big house. It is not actually the whare tūpuna. The actual engine room of the marae is the wharekai the dining room because from that wharekai emanate all of the orders that go around to all the different parts of the marae including the big house. So when kai is served those orders go out and they have to listen to the cooks in the kitchen.In terms of the way that the marae operates this bill does have potential implications because a lot of maraes around the country do have aspirations to trade in food. They do have aspirations to perhaps set up cafés or restaurants—Shane Ardern: This bill will help them. This will help them.RINO TIRIKATENE: —and this bill definitely will help. At its most basic level there is the Te Kai Manawa Ora programme which has been promoted by the former Food Safety Authority. It is a very sensible programme that provides good guidance to marae in terms of proper food handling. With a lot of it especially when you talk to your old aunties they will get quite offended if you tell them what food handling standards or food safety standards are. They have been doing it mai rā nō as we say—for a long long time. But it is good that these measures are being promoted to Māori and that there is the pathway that they can follow to indeed become businesses that trade in food and that comply with the relevant food control plan.This is a good part. This is the guts of the legislation. It is about risk management as opposed to as I mentioned earlier the old hygiene regulations which were more worried about the fixtures and the fittings and what was on the walls and what was onthe floors and what was up in the air ducts. All of those are basically irrelevant with the passing of this legislation because everything will be based around the whole process of the handling of the kai the food—right through its production to the end product and ultimately the consumer.As I mentioned the wharekai is the engine room of the marae. As Māori we know that the mana of the hapū of the whānau is very much determined by the quality of the food and of the feast that is put on for the guests. It is very exciting for our kuias and our ringaweras around the motu. There are hundreds of marae. We know that there are many food businesses but equally there are hundreds of marae around the country with their caterers in the kitchen that will be covered within the ambit of this legislation. We know how important it is because the mana of the marae is based on the quality of the kai and the worst thing that could happen to any marae would be if the manuhiri got crook after eating the hākari. Unfortunately I have been the victim of such an occurrence but I will not name the marae. I will not name anywhere even close to where it is—the geographic proximity. But I can tell you that it was not pleasant for me and for many other whānau who attended that particular hui.That is the very reason why we need to have this legislation in place. We need to have this legislation which provides the full gambit of all food suppliers food businesses and food purveyors right across the country from all levels working under a much more user-friendly food safety risk management - based framework. That applies as I have mentioned right from the marae wharekai through to the coffee cart through to the cottage cheese-maker and right through to the big industrial export processor.I did want to touch on the fact that the food sector in general is critically important to the economy of our country. I cannot stress that enough. Māori in particular are major stakeholders in the food production sectors of our country. We need to look only at the agribusiness sector sheep and beef dairy production seafood fisheries aquaculture horticulture viticulture—you name it; Māori are major players. There are many many successful industry-leading organisations around the country that are doing wonderful things in terms of producing food employing people in the regions and earning good foreign exchange dollars through the exports of their fine produce. So it is great that this legislation can be in place so that they have a much more user-friendly regime to be able to work under. Ultimately that will see the increase in export returns and the increase in the standard of living that we want across all of the country.It is vitally important for Māori but we know that there are many many hundreds if not thousands of food premises and food businesses and there are many many people who rely on the food industry for employment. Likewise it is significant that half of our export returns as a country come from food production and food exports. So this is a very very significant piece of legislation. It has taken a long time to get to this point but as I mentioned yesterday good things take time as the Mainland cheese ad said. But it is true that this is a very very good measure in Part 2. Having the sliding scale and the range of different plans means that businesses will have certainty that they know they operate under or a means by which that can be determined. That is really the central aspect to the risk management approach. I commend Part 2. Kia ora.