"It's pretty common knowledge if an egg is covered in poo, you don't lick it. Wash your hands afterwards, what's the problem?" Labour's Kieran McAnulty said. Photo: Connect Images via AFP
The Labour Party is ridiculing the government's consultation over what chores children can do on family farms, describing it as a solution in search of a problem.
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden has announced the start of consultation with the agriculture sector on the rules surrounding children collecting eggs or feeding small animals.
In a statement, van Velden said the government was proposing making it clear that children could safely take part in "light chores" on family farms - but she expected higher-risk activities involving heavy machinery would remain off-limits.
Farmers had told her they wanted the law to recognise that the farm was both their workplace and home, she said.
But Labour's Workplace Relations and Safety spokesperson Jan Tinetti said the government was focusing on a non-existent problem.
"Kids are part of the farm life. I've taught in a rural area [and] it's really important that we encourage the kids to be active in the farm life," she said.
"Parents will... make certain that their kids are safe, it's not something we should be looking into."
Labour's Kieran McAnulty also questioned the rationale and said he "wouldn't have thought" it was an issue.
"It's pretty common knowledge if an egg is covered in poo, you don't lick it. Wash your hands afterwards, what's the problem?" he said.
"This sounds like a similar situation to these kindy kids getting hit in the head by an apple. I don't think either of those scenarios have ever been raised with anyone."
National ministers, questioned about the announcement on Monday morning, also seemed somewhat bemused by the announcement.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon framed the move in the context of wider consultation on health safety to prevent over-compliance.
Northland MP Grant McCallum said he suspected most farmers would not have considered the issue to be a problem but encouraged farmers who felt differently to get in contact with his party's rural caucus.
"The thought that farmers can't take their kids out into the farm and help them with chores is just ridiculous."
Chris Bishop said he doubted the government would be regulating the collection of eggs and watering plants: "I can't say I've ever collected an egg from a hen house myself. I'm an urban boy, but you never rule anything out - all sorts of things happen in this job."
Tama Potaka told reporters many kids enjoyed collecting eggs, particularly with their "nanny and koro".
"I suggest that when they do that, they make sure they don't get clucked or plucked," Potaka said.
Speaking to media this afternoon, van Velden said it was important the regulations reflected reality and the current rules were unclear.
"What we have at the moment is essentially a prohibition on kids being able to work on farms, and I've been talking to people in the rural community who say that doesn't reflect the reality of rural life, where you have a workspace which is also a family home."
The minister said she was not aware of any "safety concerns" around picking up eggs, which was one example of a light chore given to her by MBIE.
"Talking to people of the farming sector, they say kids every day now they might pick up eggs, they might be docking tails, they might even be going into the milking sheds.
"But if our laws are so vague and prohibitive that we're saying kids can't do work on farm, that doesn't reflect that reality, and we should give confidence to mums who are raising their kids on farms, and also to the dads who are out there doing a lot of milking and stuff that you can actually raise your kids, give them really good skills, give them a good trade, and you're not going to be breaching the law," van Velden said.
Federated Farmers health and safety spokesperson David Birkett told RNZ he welcomed the move, particularly the development of new Approved Codes of Practice (ACOPs) on the safe use of farm vehicles and machinery.
"The reason is, the largest cause of deaths on farms are quad bikes, and we've been with our working groups within the industry, with WorkSafe and some of our more corporate farming entities to try and solve this problem," he said
"We haven't been able to find the solution yet, where there's lots of small things that we can do, but they're still seeing a lot of deaths."
Birkett said there was a "bit of a blurred line" when it came to what exactly children were allowed to do on a farm.
"What we want to do is just make sure that we've got some clarification on exactly what children can do and can't do, and it looks like that's what the minister will be looking to do in this consultation," he said.
"That's more of a minor area when you look at the where our deaths and injuries come from within agriculture."
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