Katherine Rich: BusinessNZ CEO on the labelling regulations in New Zealand

There’s a view we're an international outlier with our labelling regulations. 

The standards are under review from the Ministry for Regulation in its latest attack on red tape. 

Minister David Seymour says the labelling codes seem overly restrictive. 

He says for example, Chemist Warehouse has someone employed full time to check labels. 

BusinessNZ CEO Katherine Rich told Mike Hosking it's an issue for overseas companies having to deal with regulations here that are nowhere else. 

She says if you buy a bottle of French or Spanish wine, it'll have an ugly white sticker on it – that's because of rules that only apply here. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
Right nixt cab off the old slashing of red tape.
Rank is labeling laws. Currently there's around thirty laws requiring
important goods to meet our packaging standards, essentially driving away
competition ads cost of both business and consumers. Anyway, Catherine
Rich's the Boss ad Business New zealand And is with us.
Good morning, good morning. Of all the issues in your area,
where does this labeling business fit? Do you think?

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Look, I know it sounds like a really dry topic,
but it's a multi billion dollar issue for New Zealand.
So many products require labels and it is time to
look at the things that New Zealand expects companies to
do and just test it, Just to look at what
are we asking, what's important to have on a label

(00:58):
and what's not Because so many things have to be
repackaged or resticked for New Zealand, and in many cases
it's completely unnecessary and could be done well. The information
could be imparted by an E label or a QR
code not on the sticker.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
All right, two claims yesterday, One will see more see
the chemist warehouse employees a person to do nothing but
check labels. Is that true? And if it is, would
they be the only company? And why has it got
this bad look?

Speaker 3 (01:27):
This is an issue for any company that markets something
that requires a label. So it's not just pharmaceuticals. It's food,
it's beer and wine, it's clothing, it's everything. And there
are some very good reasons for labels, of course, things
like warnings, hazards, allergens. But over a period of time,
New Zealand has introduced some bespoke rules which require overstickering

(01:50):
for reasons that aren't really necessary. There are lots of
other legitimate labeling jurisdictions around the world. We should look
towards greater mutual recognition. Wine's a good example. You might
have noticed on if you're buying a bottle of French
or Spanish wine, it might have an ugly white sticker
on it in addition to its beautiful bottle. That's because

(02:13):
New Zealand has some rules which the rest of the
world doesn't follow. I think the ministry of regulation is
don't do some important work. It is a multi billion
dollar issue. It's not to take away information for consumers.
It's just a test what should be on the label
and what could be better delivered by a QR code

(02:35):
or something online.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Other claim yesterday was if you do it properly, you
can lower the cost of a product, therefore the cost
of living gets cheaper. True or not?

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yes, that is true. There have been examples in New
Zealand where even though we're a market the size of Melbourne,
we ask companies to either repack or oversticker for to
deliver information that could be delivered in another way. It
does add cost because you've physically got to have someone

(03:03):
over stickering, or in many cases you're asking a company
to do a very short production run which is often
uneconomical or ads cost. And the other issue is that
many companies are not They're either making one of two decisions.
One they're going to the cost of doing the three packaging,
or two they're deciding not to come to our market

(03:24):
at all. And during the time I ran the Pudent
Grocery Council, I saw that a lot sometimes Medsafe or
MPI would ask for a rule to be implemented and
the company would just decide on not launching a New
Zealand at or and that means less choice for consumers
and not having the access to the latest innovation.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah all right, Katherine, go well, have a good weekend.
Katherine Rich, Business New Zealand CEO.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
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