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.

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.

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.”