Postscript
Food Act 2014 – rolling deadlines to register your food business
The legislation has introduced a sliding scale where businesses that are at a higher risk, from a food safety viewpoint, are required to operate under stricter requirements than lower risk outlets. The Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) points out that a corner dairy operator who reheats meat pies is treated differently from a meat pie manufacturer.
New food businesses must register when they start to trade. Existing businesses are required to register with a set of rolling deadlines.
Registration was required by 31 March 2018 for a group of businesses including cafes and clubs without an alcohol licence, bakeries, caterers, rest homes, dairies, convenience stores and some food manufacturers. For a comprehensive list, go here. If your business is in this group and hasn’t registered, you must be in touch with MPI now.
The next group of businesses to register must do so by 30 November 2018. Go here for more details.
Kawarau Falls case: an update
In our Autumn 2017 edition, the article ‘Buying off the Plans’ (page 4) noted that the Kawarau Falls case had been appealed to the Supreme Court and we were awaiting its decision.
To recap on this case: in September 2016 the Court of Appeal held that in circumstances where an ‘off the plans’ project could not be completed and the Agreement for Sale and Purchase had been cancelled by the developer, the developer had to pay purchasers back their deposits.
Although this result appeared to set a favourable precedent for purchasers, a purchaser’s rights became uncertain when the Court of Appeal decision was appealed to the Supreme Court.
On 6 October 2017, the Supreme Court of New Zealand released its judgment[1]. The majority of the Supreme Court agreed with the lower court and found that the deposits must be refunded to the purchasers, and dismissed the appeal.
The rights of purchasers, in circumstances where they have bought off the plans and the project cannot be completed, are now clearer.
Minimum wage increased on 1 April
We remind you that the minimum wage rates were raised on 1 April 2018. They are now:
- $16.50/hour for adults
- Starting-out and training rates are $13.20/hour. These are 80% of the adult minimum wage.
[1] Kawarau Village Holdings Ltd v Sun [2017] NZSC 150
If any of these articles have led to questions you would like answers to, please contact us.