August 5, 2024 • 7 mins
The Associate Ag (and Food Safety) Minister says NZ will opt out of an Australasian joint infant formula standard because it could disadvantage our dairy industry. We also touch on the controversial Otago freshwater policies and how calving's going on his Manawatu dairy farm.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In a past life, he was the president of Federated farmerst.
Before that he was just a common man or two
dairy farmer. These days he's Associate agg Minister and also
Minister for Food Safety. Andrew Hogar just before we talk
about the controversy around this infant formula labeling. Is it
harder being a dairy farmer at carving time or a
(00:23):
politician trying to right the wrongs of the country.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I think it's definitely harder being a dairy farmer at
carving time, because at least with all the stresses I've got,
I'm still indoors in an office that can be heated,
rather than walking around in the rain picking up calves
and going from one armor to another. So yeah, been
(00:48):
a politicians, I don't think there's any job harder than
being a dairy farmer at carving time. Quite frankly, yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Well, i'd probably agree with you. Not that I've ever
been a dairy farmer at carving time. I've been a
sheep farmer at lambing time. That can be pretty stressful,
especially if it's snows.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yes, definitely, all right, talk to.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Me about your day job and we'll come back to
your farm. In the manor or two your day job.
What's the story behind this controversy over the labeling of
the infant formula and why can't we come to some
agreement with the Aussies.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yes, so there's been a new standard work on infant
formula between Australia and New Zealand under what we call
food Standards Australia New Zealand. It's been in place for
a while now and this standard's been in development since
twenty thirteen. And finally, you know, there was a new
standard that was proposed by a large ninety nine percent
(01:42):
of it we're totally behind. There's a lot of the
compositional nutritional stuff total in alignment. There our concern and
the concern of another companies here in New Zealand or
based out of New Zealand, was around the labeling and
what we'd be quite on the labeling, which would have
affected how attractive their product would look in particularly the
(02:09):
Chinese e commerce market when compared to similar products from Europe,
where they were able to have more information on the labeling,
and you know, they were really concerned about how they
could potentially lose market chair there. So that was where
the area of disagreement was I had the option at
(02:30):
the board meeting of well pushing for a review, and
obviously the group of ministers had the option of accepting
a review where this stuff could have been looked at.
But the Australian ministers were not in favor of a review.
They didn't see this as an issue and would have
been worked on for long enough, and so basically it's
(02:52):
got pasted and we were the objecting voice. And I've
made clear that we would then be considering opting out
of the standard based on those economic grounds, which is
what we've done. So we'll be developing a new standard
for New Zealand that pretty much, you know, copy and
paste ninety nine percent of the cemented or this ZEN standard,
(03:18):
and then we'll make our changes around the labeling we need.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Well, the industry here certainly didn't like it. We had
reports of the likes of denone was going to upsticks
and leave the country if you've signed up with the Aussies.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, well that was There's been lots of claims and
concerns and certainly, you know, we were taking this very seriously.
So I would hope that the name would reward us
by bringing more business here to New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, Denane's got a big dairy factory down in South
Otago at Clydevale. There, my old mate Grant Patterson built
it and then sold it to the French company. Now
there's a river that runs past there. You may have
heard of it, Andrew. It's called the Kluther River. Now,
what the hell's go going on with waterways in Otago?
With these water policies, these fresh water policies, all this rubbish,
(04:07):
Well I shouldn't say rubbish, I'll offend some people, but
impractical stuff about the mana or the spirit of the
water being transferred from one waterway to another, which has
been for one hundred years. Surely we've got to take
a more practical approach to water.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I'd look definitely, and you know this will be reforming
or reviewing and replacing the MPs free sh water at
twenty twenty, which is what's driving a lot of these concepts.
That's definitely our agenda to get to work on. And
I guess you know, from my point of view and
the equodi's point of view, you know, we just want
(04:45):
to see pragmatic, science based decision making happening. End of
the day, water is two molecules hydrogen one oxygen gets
evaporated from the Tesman Sea and drops on New Zealand
and effectively lens on mountains and then gravity takes it
down to the sea. You know, there's not a lot
(05:06):
more to it than that. And you know we all
want to clean water, we want to be able to
swim in it, we want to be able to recreate.
Those are important things to all Newsiganders and we just
need to focus on doing smart stuff and around how
we can improve it and get it where where it's
the graded. How can we improve it to be a standard?
(05:29):
I think you know we've just gotten too tied up,
a big tape and pureaucratic complexities over the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
I would, yeah, absolutely decision making, yep, and it belongs
to us all. That's my opinion. I'm probably wrong on
that one, and we'll offend some people by saying that.
Let me just finish going back to your dairy farm
and the mana or two. How's the season treating you?
I know you're getting daily, almost hourly updates from the farm.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, so it's how I think if you can remember
me this time last year, I was pretty depressed from
all brain kept on fallen. It's been a much dry season,
so much more pleasant to us in that regard grass growth,
and you checking on the weekend. Brass throat looks good.
Not too concerned there, it's just yeah, I know when
(06:19):
I'm around that institutional launch it's been built up over
twenty eight odd years of added boost stuff and we're
to fix things and all that certainly does getting missed,
but you know the team's doing a good job well, Andrew.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
I shouldn't say this either, because this will offend some people.
There is a track record of people from Manora two
making very quick car trips to Wellington and back. So
maybe you could whip up and do a night carving
and then come back and do your day job. I
shouldn't say that, should I look, thank you very much
for your time. Yeah, I'll get on. Not a good comparison,
We'll leave it at that. Andrew Hogart Associate hagg and
(06:58):
Food Minister. Thanks for your time on the country. I
know you're a busy man nowhere.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Thanks Jimmy, jeez,
In a past life, he was the president of Federated farmerst.
Before that he was just a common man or two
dairy farmer. These days he's Associate agg Minister and also
Minister for Food Safety. Andrew Hogar just before we talk
about the controversy around this infant formula labeling. Is it
harder being a dairy farmer at carving time or a
(00:23):
politician trying to right the wrongs of the country.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I think it's definitely harder being a dairy farmer at
carving time, because at least with all the stresses I've got,
I'm still indoors in an office that can be heated,
rather than walking around in the rain picking up calves
and going from one armor to another. So yeah, been
(00:48):
a politicians, I don't think there's any job harder than
being a dairy farmer at carving time. Quite frankly, yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Well, i'd probably agree with you. Not that I've ever
been a dairy farmer at carving time. I've been a
sheep farmer at lambing time. That can be pretty stressful,
especially if it's snows.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yes, definitely, all right, talk to.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Me about your day job and we'll come back to
your farm. In the manor or two your day job.
What's the story behind this controversy over the labeling of
the infant formula and why can't we come to some
agreement with the Aussies.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yes, so there's been a new standard work on infant
formula between Australia and New Zealand under what we call
food Standards Australia New Zealand. It's been in place for
a while now and this standard's been in development since
twenty thirteen. And finally, you know, there was a new
standard that was proposed by a large ninety nine percent
(01:42):
of it we're totally behind. There's a lot of the
compositional nutritional stuff total in alignment. There our concern and
the concern of another companies here in New Zealand or
based out of New Zealand, was around the labeling and
what we'd be quite on the labeling, which would have
affected how attractive their product would look in particularly the
(02:09):
Chinese e commerce market when compared to similar products from Europe,
where they were able to have more information on the labeling,
and you know, they were really concerned about how they
could potentially lose market chair there. So that was where
the area of disagreement was I had the option at
(02:30):
the board meeting of well pushing for a review, and
obviously the group of ministers had the option of accepting
a review where this stuff could have been looked at.
But the Australian ministers were not in favor of a review.
They didn't see this as an issue and would have
been worked on for long enough, and so basically it's
(02:52):
got pasted and we were the objecting voice. And I've
made clear that we would then be considering opting out
of the standard based on those economic grounds, which is
what we've done. So we'll be developing a new standard
for New Zealand that pretty much, you know, copy and
paste ninety nine percent of the cemented or this ZEN standard,
(03:18):
and then we'll make our changes around the labeling we need.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Well, the industry here certainly didn't like it. We had
reports of the likes of denone was going to upsticks
and leave the country if you've signed up with the Aussies.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, well that was There's been lots of claims and
concerns and certainly, you know, we were taking this very seriously.
So I would hope that the name would reward us
by bringing more business here to New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, Denane's got a big dairy factory down in South
Otago at Clydevale. There, my old mate Grant Patterson built
it and then sold it to the French company. Now
there's a river that runs past there. You may have
heard of it, Andrew. It's called the Kluther River. Now,
what the hell's go going on with waterways in Otago?
With these water policies, these fresh water policies, all this rubbish,
(04:07):
Well I shouldn't say rubbish, I'll offend some people, but
impractical stuff about the mana or the spirit of the
water being transferred from one waterway to another, which has
been for one hundred years. Surely we've got to take
a more practical approach to water.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I'd look definitely, and you know this will be reforming
or reviewing and replacing the MPs free sh water at
twenty twenty, which is what's driving a lot of these concepts.
That's definitely our agenda to get to work on. And
I guess you know, from my point of view and
the equodi's point of view, you know, we just want
(04:45):
to see pragmatic, science based decision making happening. End of
the day, water is two molecules hydrogen one oxygen gets
evaporated from the Tesman Sea and drops on New Zealand
and effectively lens on mountains and then gravity takes it
down to the sea. You know, there's not a lot
(05:06):
more to it than that. And you know we all
want to clean water, we want to be able to
swim in it, we want to be able to recreate.
Those are important things to all Newsiganders and we just
need to focus on doing smart stuff and around how
we can improve it and get it where where it's
the graded. How can we improve it to be a standard?
(05:29):
I think you know we've just gotten too tied up,
a big tape and pureaucratic complexities over the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
I would, yeah, absolutely decision making, yep, and it belongs
to us all. That's my opinion. I'm probably wrong on
that one, and we'll offend some people by saying that.
Let me just finish going back to your dairy farm
and the mana or two. How's the season treating you?
I know you're getting daily, almost hourly updates from the farm.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, so it's how I think if you can remember
me this time last year, I was pretty depressed from
all brain kept on fallen. It's been a much dry season,
so much more pleasant to us in that regard grass growth,
and you checking on the weekend. Brass throat looks good.
Not too concerned there, it's just yeah, I know when
(06:19):
I'm around that institutional launch it's been built up over
twenty eight odd years of added boost stuff and we're
to fix things and all that certainly does getting missed,
but you know the team's doing a good job well, Andrew.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
I shouldn't say this either, because this will offend some people.
There is a track record of people from Manora two
making very quick car trips to Wellington and back. So
maybe you could whip up and do a night carving
and then come back and do your day job. I
shouldn't say that, should I look, thank you very much
for your time. Yeah, I'll get on. Not a good comparison,
We'll leave it at that. Andrew Hogart Associate hagg and
(06:58):
Food Minister. Thanks for your time on the country. I
know you're a busy man nowhere.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Thanks Jimmy, jeez,
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.