New baby formula standards were designed to prioritise infant nutrition and take the pressure off parents. But for formula companies, profits were at stake. And that’s when the lobbying kicked in.
Concerns about misleading marketing claims on the tins was one of the reasons public health experts from New Zealand and Australia spent the past decade writing a set of regulations that would prioritise infant nutrition above all other interests.
Over 11 years, officials commissioned 36 public reports, five consumer studies and 40 stakeholder workshops, and wrote draft after draft. The regulations were all but signed and due to be implemented this year.
But in August, the government opted out of the trans-Tasman proposal last-minute, citing costs to exporters. While Australia will implement the new standards in 2030, New Zealand now intends to develop its own.
This RNZ investigation uses background interviews with industry insiders, officials and experts as well as documents obtained under the Official Information Act to show how the formula industry lobbied the government to put private profit before public health, and won.
So the money spend over the last decade…that will be just written off and we will spend the money again to develop a worse set of standards…
Seems like a great move by the government. But standard by this point, “the party of the economy” does it again.
NZ is one of the most corrupt nations on the planet. We don’t want to believe this about our own country but it’s true. It’s right in front of our noses every day and we look away and pretend it’s not there.
It’s a nice thought, because it implies that almost all other countries are less corrupt.
I honesty think NZ is one of the lesser corrupted countries in the world, and I mean that as a bad thing.
I think you don’t think it’s as corrupt because you don’t perceive corruption as being corruption. In other words it’s become so normalised to you that you think it’s just a matter of fact. Of course people would get jobs in government because they had personal relationships with the PM. Of course a party would oppose tobacco legislation because they got money from the tobacco lobby. Of course government contracts would be handed out to the five companies which are well connected and give money to both parties. Of course anytime a law gets passed the farmers are exempt. Of course Fonterra sets the agenda for legislation.
You don’t think that’s corruption because that’s the way it’s always been in this country.
That’s not what I meant. What I meant is that this is not an NZ thing, it’s a whole world thing.
There are countries in the world where this kind of thing would have ended up with arrests of all parties involved including the politicians.
There are not many countries in the world where that would be true. And in many of the countries where that is true the arrests are often not on the judicial merits but more arbitrary wings of power blocks flexing their muscles.
One of the differences here is that in NZ we tend to find out about this sort of “light” corruption.
On another note, What will likely happen - along with most of the things our dairy lobby pushes, is that as trading partners like the US become unreliable and market realities change we will need to meet the standards we’ve just rejected anyway.
Its the same story as the eggs thing a couple years ago. The weakened voluntary standards didn’t meet the demand of the market and those that hadn’t opted to invest in what the market wanted were left behind. Same thing will happen to our agriculture if they want to continue to sell into Europe and China will just flex whatever they want so like it or not the increased standards will be coming down the line anyway.
First of all I don’t see this as “light” corruption. Light corruption is slipping a cop a few dollars to let you go on a speeding ticket. This is corruption that’s measured in tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars. the fact that it’s not just one cop but the entire apparatus of the government makes it HUGE corruption.
Secondly as I have stated elsewhere this kind of corruption is so prevalent that most people don’t even perceive it as corruption. They have internalised it and accepted as business as usual. That’s why you see it being reported, because there are never consequences for corruption out in the open.
For NZ to be “one of the most corrupt”, that would need to happen in almost all countries. I suspect it’s a single digit number of countries and possibly an amount you can count on one hand.
Most countries in Europe are less corrupt and so is China and Taiwan.
I’m not sure how to respond to that. You think the grass is greener but it’s not.
