Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is a matter that has been the subject of much public debate and public disquiet for some years, including in recent years strong commentary from the Productivity Commission. Put simply, Australian consumers have a right to know where the products they purchase come from and what is in them. In other words, people want clear, easy to read and easy to understand labelling laws. That is even more the case in relation to food products, where the current labelling laws are anything but clear. I accept that this is a complex issue, given the range of matters that labels are expected to provide information about, including nutritional information, use-by dates, health warnings, trans-fatty acid content, allergen information, daily intake guides, and the source country of products or ingredients. However, I believe we can do better and the Australian people I speak to expect more clarity.

At present we have a situation where, at federal level, both the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the minister for health have an interest in different aspects of food importation but where the responsibility for regulation and enforcement of the standard falls to the states. To further complicate the onus of responsibility, the Australian Made logo and the similar trademarks used are administered by a non-government organisation. But the confusion does not stop there. For consumers, terms such as ‘product of Australia’, ‘Australian made’, and ‘Australian grown’ all have a level of haziness or ambiguity about their meaning. Australian branding of products has significant market appeal, a fact well understood by product manufacturers and so, not surprisingly, there is considerable resistance to providing clarity as to product labelling by some sectors of the community. On the significance of the Australian-made brand, if I may refer to it in that context, I note that last year, at a time of global economic recession, some 79 per cent of our food exporters—people who were exporting Australian-made products—either still experienced an increase in their sales or at least maintained sales equivalent to those of the previous year. That says a lot about Australian products at a time when the market has constricted and that certainly highlights and proves the point that Australian products are in demand both here in Australia and overseas.

With respect to food products, consumers not only have the right to know product origin and content, but they often need to know for health related reasons. They need to know exactly what is in food because, depending on what is in the food that they are consuming, it may or may not have serious health implications for them, and that is why it is absolutely critical that they know. There are no international standards with respect to food production and preparation. Food produced outside of Australia is not produced to the same standards as that produced in Australia. I do not for one minute suggest that everything produced in Australia is absolutely perfect. But I do suggest that in Australia we produce food to a much more acceptable level of standard than many of the products that we import from overseas countries. For example, we do not know what chemicals have been used in foods that are produced overseas or what hygiene standards have been used in the manufacture of food that comes in from overseas, and therefore we do not know what the health risks associated with that food are.

In 2007-08 Australia imported $9 billion of food products. That was a 10 per cent growth from the previous year, and it is a growing industry. In some cases these were foods that were not produced at all in Australia and did not compete for market share with Australian products. I accept that. But in many other cases they were marketed in direct competition with Australian produce, in turn placing Australia’s farming, agricultural and horticultural sectors under even more pressure than they are currently facing as a result of drought, floods, other extreme weather events and the global economic recession. They also faced a problem with a monopolised market.

I welcome the announcement last Friday by the Parliamentary Secretary for Health that Dr Neal Blewett has been appointed to oversee a review of Australian food-labelling laws in this country. I welcome that review and I appreciate the terms of reference that have been attached to it. I urge the review panel to deal with this issue as a matter of urgency, and I certainly look forward to the review panel’s recommendations.

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