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Food Focus August 2007

AUGUST 2007

Editorial

As I am sure you will know by now, Agriculture Minister Jim Anderton and Minister for State Services Annette King announced in May that Government had agreed to NZFSA becoming a stand-alone agency. Our split from MAF took place on 1 July and we are now a separate Public Service department administering food safety. The move has been made viable now by our evolution as a highly reputable agency in our own right. Our brand is now well recognised, which means we can confidently take our place on the world stage as a credible agency.

Establishing ourselves as a separate department gives us responsibility for maintaining effective relationships with our partners within New Zealand and internationally, and an ability to focus on food safety issues as they affect New Zealanders. We will now be an equal around the discussion tables, and the challenges and opportunities that presents for us are very exciting.

But what does our new status mean for our stakeholders? The answer is both nothing and everything!

Our range of functions going forward reflects the services and outputs that we’ve always had, and so our primary outcomes of healthy New Zealanders and sustainable economic growth and prosperity stay the same.

However, we now have the ability to modify aspects of our modus operandi and culture immensely. I want to further develop an environment and culture that will enable our organisation to grow, achieve and succeed. I do not want us to be viewed as just another bureaucracy. I want us to be responsive, innovative and able to provide good timely advice.

I believe we can succeed by being flexible in our approach to regulation and adopting a culture of continuous improvement, where sectors and sub-sectors of our industry are dealt with on their merits – a sort of ‘horses for courses’ approach that is simple, pragmatic and sensible. We should not hide behind the law and be lazy regulators.

It cannot all be done in a day of course and we will be working hard over the next few months to establish our new department. We are in the process of putting together and implementing the outcomes of our major imported, domestic and wild food reviews and I am pleased with the way these are progressing.

But I have plenty of ideas that we can carry with us into the future. I am confident we can go on and create something special with our new independence, our clear branding and a clarity in focus both within New Zealand for public health and safety and internationally for market access. Watch this space.

Andrew McKenzie