Delamere Rebuts Fitzsimons Fantasies

Associate Health Minister, Hon Tuariki Delamere, has rebutted claims from Greens leader, Jeanette Fitzsimons, about Coca-Cola writing New Zealand's food safety standards, describing them as weird conspiracy theories and distortions of fact that would not be out of place in a script for the X-Files.

"Mrs Fitzsimons is just plain wrong in her extraordinary assertions. She alleges no consumer group representatives have been asked to join the Australia New Zealand Food Authority. This will come as a big surprise to Dr Heather Yeatman, the consumer representative on the Board of ANZFA," he said.

"In addition, New Zealand has two representatives plus a third special purpose member.

"She further claims that because Coca-Cola and Nestle have representatives on ANZFA, somehow that means they are helping to write our food safety standards. ANZFA welcomes input from other stakeholders, such as people in the food industry, as they have technical knowledge. "The fact is that ANZFA does not make the final decision on food standards. The ANZFA provides recommendations to the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Council (ANZFSC) which makes the final decision. I am the New Zealand representative on the Council.

The Minister said Mrs Fitzsimons has also made some remarkable statements about what she calls "an obscure and little-advertised document called Representational Issues - Claims About Food."

"I am happy to inform Mrs Fitzsimons that the request for submissions on this document was widely circulated in notices in the front sections of the NZ Herald, The Dominion and the Christchurch Press.

"Her wild allegation that these guidelines are some sort of gagging measure doesn't stand up. The paper proposes continuing to permit the use of legitimate negative claims and does not propose any prohibitions or restrictions on their use.

"What is included are guidelines to assist manufacturers in complying with the general provisions in the Food Act and the Fair Trading Act as they relate to false, misleading or deceptive representations. These guidelines do not have the force of law as stated in the drafting included in the consultation document.

"The paper has no specific guidelines which discriminate against non-genetically engineered foods.

"The proposals will not prevent New Zealand manufacturers from marketing their products as G-E (Genetically Engineered) Free, providing the claims are not false misleading or deceptive.

"As the guidelines do not have the force of law they cannot be used by food and chemical multinationals to prevent the use of legitimate negative claims.

"The guidelines do not constrain legitimate "NON G-E" type labels on foods.

"I regret that Mrs Fitzsimons appears willing to ignore or distort the facts when taking part in what is an important public debate about New Zealand's food safety standards and I urge her to lift her game if she wants to make a meaningful contribution," said Mr Delamere.