Guy Nathan: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGuy Nathan: General Debate[Sitting date: 07 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12444. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NATHAN GUY (Minister for Primary Industries):The contamination of whey protein concentrate is an issue that has been the key focus of mine and the Government’s over the last 6 or so days. Since it was notified on Friday no other issue has been a priority for this Government. There is a wide range of Ministers who are involved working across their respective areas. Right now the focus is squarely on the health and well-being of our children and families both here in New Zealand and of course in those overseas markets. The Ministry for Primary Industries is continuing to work around the clock seeking to clarify with certainty the extent of the potential contamination. Earlier this week the Ministry for Primary Industries sent staff into Fonterra’s data and distribution centres and Nutricia warehouses with their permission to verify the information and gain a complete picture. Ministry of Health officials are working with a range of organisations such as Plunket and Heathline and of course information is regularly available on the Ministry for Primary Industries’ website. We want to ensure that the information is getting out there to the people who need it most.Of course everyone in this House will be aware that Nutricia has initiated a voluntary recall of Nutricia Karicare Stage 1 New Baby Infant Formula for babies from birth and Nutricia Karicare Gold+ Stage 2 Follow-on Formula for babies from 6 months onwards. I acknowledge my ministerial colleagues Minister Ryall Minister Goodhew and indeed Minister Kaye as well who are involved in doing a very good response in this area working very closely across these Government departments to ensure that this information is flowing through to consumers here and indeed in other international markets. If parents or caregivers have any of the recalled product lines at home they should return them to the shop that they have been bought from or return to the place of purchase and seek a refund.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is working with its embassies to provide information to international markets. This issue has the potential to affect children in other countries and we want to do what we can to ensure their overall safety. I appreciate that information changed in the first few days and that is now becoming a lot clearer. Although the information has not been completely clear at times officials and the Government have been taking and will continue to take a very conservative precautionary approach. I acknowledge Ministers Groser and McCully for providing that information through to those embassies on a regular and timely time frame. I understand that there are a lot of questions and right now our focus is on ensuring the health and safety of consumers in New Zealand and across the world. I can assureeveryone in the House and the New Zealand public that at the appropriate time I will ask those questions as will the Government to ensure that we get the answers that we all require.This incident also affects our international reputation. It will have an effect but it is hard to measure—very hard to quantify at this stage. The fortnightly global trade online auction last night was of some comfort to some exporters. There was a mild dip back by about 2.4 percent in the auction prices. To me this result indicates that the market has taken a measured response on the current situation. There was strong interest from around 200 bidders and a rise in that in the last auction and although whole-milk powder was back by 1.6 percent and skim-milk powder was back by 3 percent it was very similar when you weigh up that overall the online auction has been moving around quite a bit.As you know Mr Speaker and as the House knows there has been a lot of disappointment about what has happened but New Zealand has a strong history as an exporting food nation for over 100 years. We need to maintain our integrity on the world stage. Something has gone wrong. We need to rectify what has gone wrong and maintain our integrity and our integrity will be measured on how we respond. This is an important issue and I want to conclude by saying that the Government is doing all it can to provide information to New Zealand consumers and international markets.