Wednesday 7 March 2001

“The joint industry/Government working party has made significant progress towards resolving the public policy issues associated with the dairy merger,” John Roadley, Chairman-designate of Global Dairy Company, said today.

Mr Roadley was commenting after he, along with the chairmen of New Zealand Dairy Group and Kiwi Co-operative Dairies, met earlier this week with Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton, Finance Minister Michael Cullen, Economic Development Minister Jim Anderton and Commerce Minister Paul Swain.

Mr Roadley said industry leaders and the Government were working together to ensure the industry was in good shape to capture the benefits of the merger from the beginning of the 2001/2 season.

“The Government has assured us that it will use its best endeavours to progress the work as quickly as possible to provide sufficient certainty for shareholders to vote in early May. We are comfortable with that timetable given the Government’s assurances,” he concluded.

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