Fonterra Suppliers Confident in Mainland Dairy Future
Fonterra's 460 milk suppliers in Australia, who will switch to Lactalis end of this month, are unfazed with the impending change.
"The draft terms of reference should be expanded to include looking at whether there was reduced oversight of food safety because MPI had its budget slashed by $26 million," says O'Connor.
"It also needs to examine whether the super ministry, formed last year, had the capacity to deal with such a disaster for our exporters."
O'Connor says the inquiry must be truly independent.
"There is no guarantee the separate inquiries being conducted by MPI and Fonterra will be completely independent when they may be implicated in wrong doing over the way the contamination was handled."
It is important the inquiry is completed as quickly as possible, O'Connor says.
"Our international reputation is on the line and the longer this inquiry takes, the longer questions hang over the quality and safety of New Zealand's food exports."
