War of words

 MIE chair John McCarthy has taken issue with claims made by his Alliance Group counterpart Murray Taggart in a radio interview earlier this month about dialogue – or more correctly the lack of it – between MIE and Alliance Group.

In an interview on Richard Loe’s On the Field radio show Taggart said there had been little or no contact between the meat processor and MIE. “To the best of my knowledge [Alliance Group] involvement was pretty much nil,” he told Loe.

When asked if this was a serious fault in the MIE process, Taggart said it was. “I can’t comment on the process or consultants [MIE] used, but obviously they didn’t feel a great need to talk to us.”

But McCarthy disputes this claim. “Murray must have had a tap on the head or something; that is so far removed from the facts of the matter it is unbelievable,” he told Loe in a later interview. 

McCarthy says that as part of its business plan with Beef + Lamb NZ (it provided MIE with $220,000 to produce its report) certain parameters were set by the industry body so it was comfortable with the funding it had given MIE.

“One of these requirements was that we consulted with the major players and as much of the meat industry as possible,” he explained. “Our report states that we have consulted with 80% of the ovine and bovine processors – impossible had we not talked with Alliance.”

McCarthy says he and MIE’s lead consultant Ross Hyland had consulted with Alliance Group several times. “We even made a special trip to the South Island and met in the Alliance offices with former chief executive Grant Cuff and chief financial officer Danny Hales for at least 90 minutes. We have the briefing notes from that meeting.”

McCarthy says he is bemused by Taggart’s claims about the lack of dialogue and believes the Alliance board would be “disturbed by the tenor of his remarks”.

“It is incredible that Murray could go on air and deny any meetings; it has brought us into disrepute and I want to clarify the situation.”