Ministerial Statements — Dairy Products, Whey Protein—Contamination Incident

I wish to make a ministerial statement under Standing Order 352 in relation to Fonterra and the potential contamination issue. Last Friday the Ministry for Primary Industries received notification from Fonterra about a potential contamination issue relating to whey protein concentrate, manufactured at its Hautapu plant, that had tested positive for the food poisoning bacteria that could cause botulism. Officials immediately swung into action and they have been working around the clock since then to give us certainty and clarification on the extent of the potential contamination.

I would like to reassure all New Zealanders, as well as our international trading partners, that the Government has all possible resources focused on this issue. We have established a ministerial response team, and a number of briefings, meetings, and teleconferences have been held over the days since the issue first came to the regulator’s attention. Our main priority at this point is public safety. There are a number of questions that need to be answered by Fonterra, and it is likely that both Fonterra and the Ministry for Primary Industries will hold inquiries after this situation has been resolved, but those questions are for another day. As I said yesterday, now is not the time for recrimination. Now is the time to make sure that consumers have the best information.

The Ministry for Primary Industries has had staff in Fonterra’s Hautapu plant, the site of the contamination, conducting testing, and has also had staff in Nutricia’s offices, assisting with the tracking of infant formula products that may contain the contaminated whey protein. It has also put officials into Fonterra’s data centres, with its agreement, to assist in getting absolute clarity on the situation. However, the situation remains fluid. The information changed a number of times over the first 72 hours. That is why officials and the Government have been taking, and will continue to take, a conservative, precautionary approach until we get absolute certainty.

This issue will obviously have implications for our export markets. We are working closely with our trading partners to keep them informed and to get them the latest information as soon as it comes to hand. Overall, to date the response from international markets has, on balance, been measured. We have received mixed messages from Russia, and we are working with the Russian authorities to clarify the situation. China has suspended imports of Fonterra’s produced whey powder and dairy base powder from New Zealand and Australia, and has increased inspection and supervision at the border for New Zealand dairy products. However, that has not stopped imports of our two biggest exports, whole-milk powder and skim-milk powder, at this stage. Together, these two exports to China were worth around about $2.37 billion over the past year.

Yesterday, after the Ministry for Primary Industries had issued earlier precautionary advice regarding two of Nutricia’s infant formula products, Nutricia decided to issue a voluntary recall for those two affected product lines: Nutricia Karicare Infant Formula Stage 1, for babies from birth, all batches; and Nutricia Karicare Gold Plus Stage 2 Follow-on, for babies from 6 months, all batches. It is important to note the recall does not affect any other Nutricia Karicare products. As I said earlier, the health of consumers is of the utmost importance, and it is critical that these products are recalled, until any contamination can be ruled out. Parents and caregivers should move to alternative brands in the meantime, until we can get absolute clarity on the situation.

The Government and officials are working closely with the Food and Grocery Council and retailers to ensure that the two affected product lines are removed from the shelves, and to ensure an adequate supply of alternative brands. If any parents or caregivers have any of the recalled product lines at home, they should return it to the shop they bought it from for a refund or dispose of it. Officials and the Government will be keeping the New Zealand public completely up to date with all information as it arrives and further clarification is received. In the meantime I urge all parents and caregivers to refer to the Ministry for Primary Industries website for the latest and most up-to-date information on the situation.

Our priority today and over the next few days is making sure that parents here and abroad have the accurate information they need to ensure that their children are safe. As a parent, I understand how anxious they might be feeling. They are confused and worried about whether there is a risk to the health of their kids. Their questions must be answered in full. They must have access to accurate and timely advice, and nothing must be held back from them. The safety of our children and children abroad is paramount.

We are standing alongside the Government as it works with Fonterra to provide answers for parents. We will also support its efforts to protect our export markets and the international reputation that we have from further damage. When the time is right, we will also be demanding answers, as many New Zealanders will be. Why did the potential contamination take so long to detect? Why did it take so long to tell people about it? Why has the Ministry of Health not played a major role in getting information to parents? What protocols do the Ministry for Primary Industries and Fonterra have for handling these situations, and have they followed them? And what can we do to prevent this kind of shambles ever happening again?

Fonterra is New Zealand’s largest company. It came into existence under law under a previous Labour Government. It was given special rights to operate largely outside the Commerce Act to maximise our nation’s wealth, and we are proud of its achievements. But with rights comes enormous responsibility. As our only truly global company, Fonterra’s responsibility includes protecting our reputation as a source of safe, high-quality food. This is built as much on trust as it is on technology, but the quality of trust disappears as transparency fades. Fonterra, in this case, has let us down. Its strategic communications have been hugely lacking. People understand that things can go wrong, but they expect to be told the truth and given the full facts. That is what this country is known for around the world—our honesty and our transparency. That must never be put at risk.

Hard questions must also be asked about the role of the Government. Have Ministers done enough? Has the Ministry for Primary Industries been too hands-off? The Ministry for Primary Industries’ mission statement is to grow and protect New Zealand, but has the push for growing exports overshadowed the critical focus on protection—in this case, the protection of families and their children, of our international standing as a safe food exporter, and of our nation’s overall reputation?

We must work harder than ever to safeguard our valuable relationship with our trading partners, including China. China is right to be asking questions of us given events such as the dicyandiamide scare and the problems with meat certification. It is devastating today to see the Chinese media describing our “100% Pure New Zealand” campaign as a festering sore, and claiming that our food safety issues are systemic. This shows that the “she’ll be right” attitude simply does not cut it in our global market place. We must be more vigilant than that. This issue is bigger than politics, but Fonterra is not bigger than Parliament. It is up to us in this House to come together and make sure that everything that happens from this moment on happens in the best interests of parents and of our country.

I rise to say just a few words on behalf of the Green Party. The Greens will be playing our part as a part of this Parliament to find out what happened. I think that is important because we are doing it on behalf of New Zealand parents, but we are also doing it on behalf of parents all around the world, and that needs to be our No. 1 priority.

Mums and dads both here in New Zealand but elsewhere as well, in other parts of the world, need to be sure that the food they are feeding their kids is safe. That needs to be the fundamental starting point for anything that we do and anything that we say as a Parliament. I believe that around this Chamber today that is a common understanding. I believe that we will all do everything we can to ensure in the first instance that we locate all the contaminated ingredients, and that we provide all the information necessary to the parents so that they can be aware of that.

I would also say that I think there is a much more important role for the Ministry of Health. I would like to see the Ministry of Health stepping up and providing advice to parents. The Ministry for Primary Industries is fine, but it is the Ministry of Health that I think should be playing a bigger role in this. We need more information and a much larger campaign to get that information out than what we have seen to date.

I would also say that there are a number of critical questions that we are going to need answers to when we go forward and deal with this issue. Are our food regulations adequate? Does the regulator have a sufficiently independent and powerful position in regard to the industry? It is very important, I believe, that the regulator, in this case the Ministry for Primary Industries, is in a position where it can control the industry and, if necessary, enforce standards and make sure that the industry is operating within the rules that the regulator sets, rather than the other way round. We need to make sure that that is exactly what has happened here.

We also have a question about whether the lessons from the dicyandiamide scare have been learnt. We know that that was, in some ways, the first concern that came up a number of months ago, and we want to make sure that we have learnt the lessons from the dicyandiamide scare.

This is not just a Fonterra problem, and it is not just a Ministry for Primary Industries problem; it is a problem for all of us. I think that we as a Parliament need to reinforce the fundamental values that underpin Parliament. It seems to me that there is a place for the nanny State, and there is a time for the nanny State, and if that is not protecting the safety of food that we feed to our children, then I do not know when else we would have the nanny State. This is exactly when we need that kind of State to protect the well-being of our children.

We have some fundamental questions to ask about the time lag between the discovering of the Clostridium and the determination that it was Clostridium botulinum. The number of months between those two points in the time line seems to me particularly critical. I think I have now got my head around why Clostridium was not found at the beginning. It was found only when it was tested later to go into the baby-formula food stream. That makes sense to me, but why the gap between the identification that there was Clostridium there and that it was C. botulinum? It seems to me that those months there need more explaining as to why there was such a big gap between those two points in the time line. I hope that the Government puts that as a priority in the inquiries that follow this.

Federated Farmers’ Willy Leferink said in the Dominion Post today: “If there’s any break in this pasture to plate chain then product does not go, or rather, that is how things are meant to work,”. That chain of custody seems to me critical to the food security issues that we need to get right. I look forward to the Government inquiry that comes once we have got through this initial period of making sure that people and children are safe.

We thank the Prime Minister for his statement on the Fonterra contamination scare. This is surely not a time for political point-scoring, and no one in New Zealand First misunderstands the gravity of this issue. This country has always had a reputation for the purity of its food, and nothing must be allowed to compromise that reputation, not even statements of human error. Systems are put in place to eliminate human error when the consequences of such mistakes can be so dramatic. Our prosperity as a nation depends on it. This food contamination scare reminds us of how vulnerable our economy is and how vulnerable the consumers of our products may have been.

Over the coming weeks and months much investigation will go into the how and why of this contamination scare—how it happened and why it happened. That investigation must be comprehensive and thorough. But what we know already is that a critical market has been hurt, as have others, and, second, that the restoration of our product reputation will nevertheless probably result—almost inevitably result—in a price reduction for this product. We also need to do some serious thinking on the wider implications of putting excessive reliance on a handful of economic sectors, and ways to reduce exposure to risk.

We are also reminded in this crisis that for our society and economy to succeed, the private and public sectors must work together, and not just in a time of crisis. Ultimately, we are, after all, in the same boat. No one wanted the crisis. It has had great potential to damage New Zealand’s credibility as a food source, but as a nation we must use this crisis to learn and build better and safer systems to ensure it does not happen again.

I thank the other political leaders for joining with the Government in having as the No. 1 priority that the security and safety of consumers and, particularly, their babies, is paramount. I happen to agree with other political leaders, there are plenty of questions that will need to be answered, and in the fullness of time we will get those answers. I am confident that the Government is putting all the resources necessary into this issue, and over the next few weeks and months we will be doing everything we can to restore New Zealand’s reputation in the international market place.