30 January 2015
Message from Philip Gregan, Chief Executive Officer, New Zealand Winegrowers
Since MPI announced the proposal to recover $2.9 million per year from the wine industry to meet the costs of its wine regulatory programme we have used the media to voice our strong opposition to the idea. It will now take concerted action by the whole industry to make sure the government understands how unjust the proposal is.
MPI are consulting on proposed changes with industry and other interested parties until 20 February. This is your only opportunity to make your opinion count.
We have now published a detailed summary of proposals affecting the wine industry online and a guide to making a submission. Go to http://www.nzwine.com/members/resources/mpi-proposal/
We urge you to read the information online and act. There’s a number of ways you can make yourself heard. You can:
· Attend a consultation meeting (click here to see dates and locations)
· Make a submission (click here to find out how)
· Contact your local MP (click here for list of MP’s and email addresses)
· Send an email to the Ministers concerned (click here for names and contact details)
To fight this we need to work together as an industry and make sure our arguments are heard loud and clear.
Philip Gregan | Chief Executive Officer | New Zealand Winegrowers
P: +64 9 306 5555 | M: +64 21 964564 | F: +64 9 302 2969 www.nzwine.com
Further Information from NZ Wine website – 19 January 2015 http://www.nzwine.com/discussion/general/wine-industry-strongly-opposes-mpi-cost-recovery/
New Zealand Winegrowers (NZW) is strongly opposing a proposal from the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) to recover $2.9 million per year from the wine industry to meet the costs of its wine regulatory programme.
“Wineries currently pay just over $200 million each year in excise to the government” said Steve Green, Chair of New Zealand Winegrowers. “Payments have increased by $70 million, or more than 60%, in the past decade. From our perspective requiring the industry to pay an additional $2.9 million to MPI every year is manifestly unjustifiable”.
The MPI proposal for wine is part of a wider review of the fees MPI charges to primary industries for the services and activities it undertakes as part of New Zealand’s biosecurity and food safety systems. “Other major primary industries are subject to the MPI user-pays regime. However unlike the wine industry, none of those sectors also pay a product specific tax”, said Mr Green.
The New Zealand wine industry has been a stand-out performer in the New Zealand economy over the past decade. Exports have grown at a compound rate of over 13% per annum lifting from $435 million in 2005 to $1.33 billion in 2014 and are expected to reach $2 billion in 2020.
“We would have thought MPI, as part of the Business Growth Agenda, would have been looking at how its supports the wine industry’s growth, rather than imposing more costs on the sector. We already pay more than $200 million to the government each year and as far as we are concerned that is enough” said Mr Green