Kedgley Sue: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Kedgley Sue: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:641;Page:10893] 
1. SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does she have confidence in her Minister of Consumer Affairs given Sunday’s press statement from that Minister rejecting the Green Party’s call for mandatory country-of-origin labelling of single component foods; if so why? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK (Prime Minister) 
: 
 Yes; because she is a hard-working and conscientious Minister. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Does she have confidence in her Minister of Consumer Affairs when instead of backing consumers’ rights to make decisions based on good information as the Minister is mandated to do she is actually undermining their rights by claiming that country-of-origin labelling should be voluntary and should simply be left to the market and does she agree that businesses will provide consumers with information only if they think it will increase sales of their product and they will not provide it if they think it is likely to decrease their sales? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: The member is aware that the Government does not support mandatory country-of-origin labelling. The Government supports labelling around the issues of food safety. 
Barbara Stewart 
: Why does her Government consider that country-of-origin labelling does not fit in with its stated priority of access to safe affordable and good food? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: Because we do not believe it is relevant to the issue of food safety which we do regulate for. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Why does her Government support mandatory country-of-origin labelling for footwear and clothing but not for food and surely if we have a right to know where our T-shirts and our jandals come from then we have a right to know where our food comes from? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: That is an issue around residual tariffs. No doubt at some point when we get to a situation of not applying any tariffs those rules of origin will also go. 
Peter Brown 
: Noting those answers how does the Prime Minister reconcile her Government’s support for a Buy New Zealand Made campaign with her refusal to support country-of-origin labelling for foodstuffs; does she not accept that when people go into a supermarket if they do not know where the food has come from then they will not know whether it is made in New Zealand or anywhere else? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: It is a question of drawing a distinction around the promotion of something and the Buy New Zealand Made campaign is about promoting to Kiwis goods that are made in New Zealand but distinguishing from that whether compliance costs should be loaded on to business for reasons that have nothing to do with the safety of the food being consumed. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Is she aware that there has been a string of scandals surrounding food imported from China and that the United States for example has recently suspended imports of shrimps and prawns because carcinogenic residues were found in them and that the Californian department of health has advised consumers not to consume ginger because it found dangerous and illegal chemicals in it; and how therefore can she claim that country-of-origin labelling is not a food safety issue particularly as the overwhelming majority of consumers believe that they have a right to decide whether to choose to buy food from countries that have a very poor safety record such as China? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I come back to my point: the issue is food safety. That is what we regulate for. Whether food is unsafe is a question not of where it comes from but of what systems apply in those countries and of how we evaluate the food product that seeks to be on the shelves here. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Is it not clear that we need to strengthen the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and our consumer protection regulations given the string of recent incidents such as the recall of Thomas and Friends wooden toys that were covered in lead paint reports that toxic jewellery made in China from electronic waste and car batteries may be being sold in New Zealand the international outcry over contaminated Chinese seafood and the recent recall of toothpaste contaminated with industrial chemicals; and is it not clear that our present approach of waiting for scandals to break overseas is not providing consumers with the protection that they want and need and that our consumer protection laws need to be strengthened? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: The points the member makes are all good reasons for having strong regulation for safety. They are not reasons for having regulation to require labelling of country of origin. 
Sue Kedgley 
: I seek leave to table a document “Foreign food fright” stating how consumers are increasingly concerned about the safety of food particularly from China. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? Yes there is objection.