PM Told By Dairy Owners “States Of Emergency” Must Delay Consultation

Following local and national States of Emergency, the Dairy and Business Owners’ Group has asked the Minister of Health and the Prime Minister to delay the closing date on vital smoked tobacco consultation to 5 April from 15 March.

“Any consultation closing date, whether it be council, departmental or government, should be pushed back by at least three-weeks because of disruption,” says Sandeep Aggarwal, Spokesperson for the Dairy and Business Owners’ Group Incorporated.

“For us, it’s the smoked tobacco regulatory consultation run by Dr Verrall’s Ministry of Health. This affects 6,000 businesses from dairies to petrol stations. For many owners and managers, their focus isn’t on consultation. Denying them a voice defeats the purpose of consultation in the first place.

“Our chair, Sunny Kaushal has kept tabs on multiple weather disasters and the crime that has followed. He wrote to the Minister of Health, the Prime Minister and copied in the Police Minister asking for this delay.

“That was sent last night but as of 2pm, we are yet to have a response.

“We simply ask that this Ministry of Health’s regulatory consultation impacting 6,000 businesses, many of them small businesses, let alone hundreds of thousands of Kiwis who smoke, be pushed back from 15 March to 5 April. We are talking just three weeks.

“Since late January, Auckland has been in a state of emergency and then Cyclone Gabrielle struck which led to a National State of Emergency on 14 February. Even Parliament’s sitting was delayed by a week because of it.

“It is unfair that the government’s regulatory clock keeps ticking on affected businesses, as if nothing has happened,” Mr Aggarwal said.

© Scoop Media