Tuesday, 07 November 2017 10:55

Change or no change?

Written by Pam Tipa

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Damien O’Connor.

Ministers are “working on proposals” for revamping the Ministry for Primary Industries, says the Minister for Agriculture Damien O’Connor.

“Change will be made to enhance the focus in each of the respective and important areas of government responsibility,” he told Rural News.

But O’Connor did not say whether the role of the minister would also involve restructuring MPI into separate departments.

Under the coalition, government roles within the primary sector include O’Connor becoming Minister for Agriculture, Biosecurity, Food Safety and Rural Communities; Stuart Nash Minister for Fisheries and NZ First’s Shane Jones Minister for Forestry and Regional Economic Development.

MPI director of market access, trade and policy division Tim Knox was asked at a conference on October 27 about the splitting of the primary industries ministry.

He answered that at that stage there was no decision he was aware of to make any change to the structure of MPI.

If there was a change to the structure of MPI, Knox said, “we would work very hard to ensure the good work done in the last five years is continued in whatever form it takes.”

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