Rt Hon Winston Peters

New Zealand First Leader

Member of Parliament for Northland
27 JUNE 2017

More Burger-Gate Madness to Come

National’s army of petty pen-pushing plutocrats has been caught out trying to ban medium-rare meat, so the Minister has pulled them off, but it’s not over.

“The Food Act is National’s legislation,” says the New Zealand First Leader and Member of Parliament for Northland Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“The back down is a sham. A restaurateur we’ve spoken to was advised that fresh fish intended for sashimi must first be frozen at -20 degrees for seven-days.

“Either the pen-pushers have gone off script, or this nanny state nonsense is where National is taking New Zealand. As it has come from managerial level employees of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), it’s the latter and not the former.

“We imagine MPI were told by Ministers to kill this as a story after Northland restaurant Duke of Marlborough revealed they had to pull their famous Governor’s Burger because of the new rules. So banning medium-rare burgers and freezing fresh fish has only been put on ice so to speak. That is unless there is someone new in charge because in September we have the chance, to turn the pages over.

“What MPI isn’t saying is that ‘specialist food control plans’ it casually drops cost thousands of dollars. MPI is spinning faster than a Fisher & Paykel washing machine to cover Ministerial blushes because they’ve all forgotten who they’re meant to be work for.

“Late last year, artisan cheesemaker Biddy Fraser-Davis was caught out with massive compliance costs and so were market stallholders in Northland and around the country. These food control plans work for the big producers not the small ones.

“We all get the need for safe food but none more than those people who actually make it,” says Mr Peters.

ENDS

© Scoop Media