Transtasman agency push

By COLIN JAMES

Trade Minister Jim Sutton is keen to see more joint Australian-New Zealand regulatory agencies for technical regulation such as the Food Safety Authority of Australia and New Zealand.

He said he and Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile have "mused" on it.

Negotiations were already well advanced on a second joint regulatory agency, on therapeutics.

"As the technical demands of regulation get more complex and public expectations rise as to what the state can protect them from, it is almost impossible for a small economy to provide the protection," Sutton said.

"Even for Australia it is a problem."

This was not just a matter of affordability, Sutton said, but of confidence in the regulatory body's expertise .

There were, for example, doubts that the Environmental Risk Management Authority had adequate expertise on biosecurity issues.

Professor Garth Cooper, a sometime adviser to Erma, said last year that there had been occasions where expertise had been lacking.

So Sutton would like to see Australia and New Zealand jointly plug into the likes of the Food and Drug Administration in the United States or its counterpart in Europe.

"There is something to be said for wheeling in experts from offshore or from plurinational organisations to reassure you."

But if that was out of reach, "two countries are better than one" - and that went for Australia as much as New Zealand because it added to Australia's pool of expertise and spread the cost.

But there was one snag, identified by the Greens' Sue Kedgley over food safety.

New Zealanders might want different standards from Australia and in a two-nation organisation the smaller party was usually under greater pressure to give way.

However, Sutton said that had not happened over food safety.