Minister off the hook by slimmest margin

NZORD - the New Zealand Organisation for Rare Disorders

Food Safety Minister Kate Wilkinson has won a challenge against her decision last year to block the mandatory fortification of bread with Folic acid, the synthetic form of dietary folate, also known as vitamin B9, but she has been let off the hook by the slimmest of margins.

NZORD took a complaint to the Regulations Review committee of Parliament, claiming she had acted outside the authority given to her under the Food Act, that the consultation she undertook was inadequate, and the outcome pre-determined.

Today’s decision from the Regulations Review committee finds no fault with the Minister’s actions, but by the slimmest of margins. Only through the Maori Party giving its support to the National Party, was it possible for a majority verdict in the Minister’s favour.

The Regulations Review committee is different from most committees of Parliament. It acts in a semi-judicial manner, is usually non-partisan in its approach, and often has a minority of government members on it. Winning only after the committee’s membership had been rigged to enable a majority verdict, is hardly a ringing endorsement of the Minister’s actions.

The complaint was filed by NZORD in December last year, and heard by the committee back in April, but it took nearly four months for the decision to appear. NZORD executive director, John Forman, says is seems obvious that much of this time was needed for government members on the committee to rally support to defend their Ministerial colleague’s very weak legal position.

But NZORD has been motivated by more than an academic approach to the legal technicalities of this case. Folic acid is a supplement added to staple foods to boost inadequate vitamin B9 levels in population diets, and it works to reduce the incidence of serious neurological disorders in babies, such as anencephaly and spina bifida. Adding Folic acid to food is strongly supported by the World Health Organisation and it is now done in 60 countries, in an attempt to reduce more than 200,000 neural tube defects worldwide each year.

“The furore that erupted in New Zealand last year about Folic acid in bread”, says Forman, “was based entirely on a deliberately orchestrated food safety scare campaign, run by the Bakers Association and the Food and Grocery Council. The Food Safety Minister failed miserably in defending an important public health programme, and instead capitulated to the misinformation campaign that caused such widespread public concern”.

NZORD is concerned that the Minister’s actions mean about a classroom full of New Zealand babies will be either dead or seriously disabled as a direct result of the Minister postponing the fortification programme for at least 2 ½ years, with the earliest possible date for future introduction now being in 2012.

“We took this action to help save lives and reduce serious disabilities”, says Forman, “but it is clear these matters were of little concern to Food Safety Minister Kate Wilkinson or her party colleagues on the committee”.

Meanwhile, the plan for a voluntary fortification programme which the Minister and the Bakers Association trumpeted loudly at the time of her decision last year, seems to have fallen off the agenda. The bakers promised action on this, and the Minister used this promise as part of her justification for canning the mandatory scheme. The Prime Minister also said that he expected action on voluntary fortification, but the bakers quickly backed off the promises they had made about the addition of Folic Acid to bread lines. Neither the bakers nor the Minister have shown any real will to reduce the harms to unborn babies from exposure to foods that are deficient in folate.

The full text of the committee’s decision can be found at this link on the Parliamentary website.

ENDS

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