Winston Peters and Shane Jones double down on Fonterra attack

The deputy prime minister says his Cabinet colleague Shane Jones doesn't need to apologise to Fonterra because his criticisms of the dairy giant were "seriously accurate".

Winston Peters and Jones are doubling down after the Regional Economic Development Minister tore strips off Fonterra on Wednesday and called for its chairman John Wilson to resign.

Jones first made the comments at a "Chatham House rules" event at the Fieldays on Wednesday morning and repeated them to media at Parliament later in the day.

His scathing attack echoed similar comments made by Peters last year about a $750 million investment by Fonterra into poor performing Chinese partner, Beingmate.

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On Thursday Peters defended his NZ First colleague saying, "if you saw what happened with Beingmate and the haircut the New Zealand farmers have taken and the huge loss of money involved, I think somebody should have been making a comment a long time ago".

"I made it very clear before the election of what I thought of that massive loss and mistake and in fact I made a lot of statements about it. Sadly, it's taken until about the 13th of June for some people to catch up, namely you guys," Peters told reporters.

Asked whether Jones should apologise for calling for yet another senior businessman to quit, Peters said, "he does not and will not be required to apologise to Fonterra because his statements are seriously accurate".

Jones' comments come only months after he launched an extraordinary broadside against Air NZ, suggesting its chairman step down and its chief executive stay out of politics.

At the time Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern slapped Jones down and said he'd gone too far calling for Air NZ chairman Tony Carter to resign.

This time Ardern has put distance between the Government and Jones' comments saying they were made in a "personal capacity".

"He did not make them as a minister and it's not Government policy, end of story. We have ministers share personal opinions all of the time but what I'm making clear here is it is not Government policy and, as I say, end of story."

Peters wouldn't answer questions about whether Jones was making his comments in a personal or ministerial capacity, saying he wasn't at Parliament when he made them so he couldn't comment.

However, he was clear "heads should roll and they should have rolled a long time ago" when it comes to Fonterra.

"It goes to the top and buck stops there ... I can't believe somebody responsible would be in the job still."

On Thursday Jones stood by his comments that Fonterra had become "disconnected from the farming community" and that a restructure of the co-operative should be considered by the Minister of Agriculture.

"This is coalition politics, I'm a robust member of the NZ First party, I've got nothing but admiration for the prime minister and my leader but this is not a government that's going to pander to the corporate culture that Fonterra at its highest level shows.

"We want accountability from New Zealand's largest company. It's not unreasonable as the provincial champion for me to challenge on behalf of the 365 people who messaged me last night, the corporate culture of our largest company," Jones said.