NZ Ag Dept COLLUDING WITH INDUSTRY?

Its an extraordinary story from Newsroom.
With the NZ Government on track to phaseout and end live export of dairy cattle, the exporters were working hard with the Ministry of Primary Industry to develop gold standards for continued exporting.
Damien O’Connor, who was Minister for Agriculture at the time has told Newsroom he would never have signed off on the work, and was not told by officials it was being done.  “Obviously, if I had knowledge of that, I would not have endorsed it, given that the trade was about to finish.” A live exports working group was set up following the 2020 sinking of Gulf Livestock 1. A report by Mike Heron QC recommended this group needed representatives from the industry and the ministry, as well as Maritime NZ, and animal welfare experts and advocates. Shortly after this, the government confirmed a total ban on the trade. The group was then tasked with overseeing the two-year transition period, particularly making sure recommendations from the Heron report were being worked toward. BUT despite the Heron recommendation, members were industry representatives, the food assurance company AsureQuality, and ministry officials - the group included no animal welfare experts and advocates.
The FOI process in NZ is actually functional. With the Dept of Ag resisting any FOI about live export, such information would never come to light in Australia.