Battle for milk
OPINION: Fonterra may be on the verge of selling its consumer business in New Zealand, but the co-operative is not keen on giving any ground to its competitors in the country.
"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."
