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

by leave—I thank the members opposite and I would be pleased to speak about apples if time permits me to because I am very familiar with the situation in Adelaide and the importance of the apple industry to the people of Adelaide and South Australia. In fact I have friends in the Adelaide Hills who are apple growers.

I was making the point when time ran out that I have written to the Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing, Ms Catherine King, with regard to the food labelling inquiry report, in particular recommendation 41 which transfers the matter of country of origin labelling from Food Standards Australia and New Zealand to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. The importance of that is that it gives the opportunity to the consumers to make some choices in the products that they consume which, today, is very difficult for them to do.

Clear food labelling standards are linked to this very matter that we are speaking on because, certainly, when it comes to biosecurity matters which people are quite rightly and properly concerned with one, of the steps that they can all take as individuals is to choose a product on the shelf for themselves. They can only make the choice that I suspect many of them would want to make—that is, to buy the Australian product if they have clear labelling laws. I would certainly urge the parliamentary secretary to take that recommendation separate from the other 66, I think, recommendations in total and act on it urgently because I believe it is a separate matter to the questions of the other information that people are seeking on food labels.

I want to come back to the importance of this whole issue of biosecurity and the importance of ensuring that products that come into this country are not contaminated and do not in any way, shape or form present a risk of any sort to Australian producers. I know that frequently free trade negotiations, which I referred to earlier, are negotiations and agreements that are entered into willingly by this country at the urging of the industry sector which, perhaps, is also the sector that may have the most to lose if something goes wrong.

I recall being caught up in the discussions and the debate about the importation of meat in this country some 18 months ago. At that time there was a real concern that meat could be brought into Australia from countries that had what is referred to as ‘mad cow disease’ detected in their herds. I am also aware that at the time the importation of meat from those countries was driven by the cattle industry of Australia who I understand wanted access to the opposite countries’ markets.

The reality here though is that if, when dealing with one of those countries, we import meat which for one reason or another gets through the system and is contaminated and then contaminates the livestock in this country then we risk the loss of sales to every country around the world. That is why it is so important that we ensure that we have a very secure system in place to make sure that we do not have any contaminated products whatsoever coming into the country.

The same applies to the question of apples. I recall meeting with apple growers in Adelaide with the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy at the time and having a roundtable discussion about that industry and their concerns. Legitimately, they were concerned because, if we allow apples to come in from a country where previously in this case, I think, fire blight had been detected and in turn fire blight gets into Australian apples then that will immediately diminish the value of Australian products when we are trying to sell to other countries.

Australia has a terrific reputation. Australian growers, I believe, are some of the best in the world. They have a terrific reputation around the world for the quality of the products that they produce. It is in our national interest to ensure that that quality is in no way jeopardised. That is effectively what this motion is talking about. It is about the importance of having a strong biosecurity system in place to ensure that we do not allow products that could otherwise contaminate our own to be brought into the country. For that reason I support the member for Hindmarsh’s motion and I commend it to the House.

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