Union challenges MPI over withheld advice and US meetings
Friday, 20 March 2026
As the Ministry of Primary Industries considers submissions on its proposal to privatise meat inspections, the union representing meat workers says it has received no clear explanation for the rationale behind the change.
It also questions why MPI officials were planning to - or had already - travelled to the United States to meet counterparts at the Department of Agriculture to discuss the proposals, saying those conversations would have taken place much earlier, or before consultations began.
MPI is keeping tight-lipped on any possible visit, offering only vague comments that trips to trading partners are routine for changes of this kind.
Under MPI’s proposals, all primary processors of red meat ‒ including beef, venison, goat and pork ‒ would be allowed to carry out some post-mortem inspection activities themselves rather than calling on the Government’s AsureQuality as they do now.
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A request for more information lodged in mid-November last year took three months to come back to the PSA, which has submitted against the proposal, and then, most of it was redacted.
But PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimmons told The Post the union was “concerned about the attendance of MPI officials in the United States at this stage in the process. We would have expected this to occur much earlier”.
Fitzsimmons said the situation showed the consultation was never genuine, and that officials should have engaged with the export meat market much earlier, before proposing to privatise meat inspection. It said it was irresponsible to approach export markets only after consultation had taken place and decisions were already made.
The union didn’t know whether officials were already in the US or planning to travel there and MPI would not answer any questions about it, saying only “New Zealand’s officials have, and will continue to, engage with trading partners, including the United States, as is usual for these kinds of changes”.
The union, which represents 650 meat inspectors employed by AsureQuality, asked for any advice or analysis MPI had undertaken or received to help determine the scope of consultation. It was told most of the material could not be released to “protect the confidentiality of advice tendered to ministers” and preserve the ability for “free and frank” opinions to be exchanged.
Other material, including an ante-and post-mortem project analysis, presumably of carcasses inspected privately, and the European Union and the United States acceptance of meat inspection and veterinary supervision changes, were withheld because they would “likely prejudice the security or defence of New Zealand or the international relations of the Government of New Zealand”.
Submissions on the proposals closed on January 23, with New Zealand Food Safety - a division of MPI - receiving 130 in total.
Deputy director-general Vincent Arbuckle said NZ Food Safety was now considering the submissions and reviewing the draft notices.
“The proposals are not about deregulation or privatisation,” Arbuckle said. “The Ministry for Primary Industries will always set export meat inspection requirements under the Animal Products Act, Animal Products Regulations and Notices, and verify compliance.”
Arbuckle said no final decisions on the proposals had been made, and any decisions would be communicated to stakeholders and the public once the process was completed.
But Fitzsimmons said she was “appalled by MPI’s failure to provide details” and questioned whether it had followed the correct processes.
A leaked report by BDO, funded by government-owned AsureQuality, says a proposal to partially privatise meat inspections would increase costs, remove choice for processors and create problems for small operators.
MPI has said it is investigating ways that it would allow New Zealand to “maintain its high standards in a more flexible and efficient way”.
Fitzsimmons countered that the plan put “at risk New Zealand's export meat market industry that is very important, economically, to New Zealand.
“This privatisation will mean that defects like cancer and urine are more likely to end up in export meat markets.”