House debates

Wednesday, 9 December 2020

Bills

Wine Australia Amendment (Label Directory) Bill 2019; Second Reading

7:06 pm

Photo of David LittleproudDavid Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management) Share this | Hansard source

Regarding the Wine Australia Amendment (Label Directory) Bill 2019, the label directory can be established by Wine Australia to assist brand owners to protect their intellectual property rights. By supporting brand owners to better protect their intellectual property rights, this bill will not only ensure consumers can be confident that they will be getting a safe and quality product but also ensure that what the bottle's label says is what they're actually getting. This additional control will assist in safeguarding the reputation of Australia's growing wine export market, which directly employs over 69,000 people and is worth $2.87 billion per year.

The label directory will be a public-facing online database of all Australian wine labels for exports that can be used by wine brand owners to search for copycat labels. Industry asked for a label directory to better protect their intellectual property rights from potential copycat exporters who seek to take advantage of the good name of Australian brands overseas. While Wine Australia's role does not extend to regulating intellectual property rights, this bill will assist wine brand owners to better protect their own interests. With the Wine Australia Amendment (Label Directory) Bill 2019, we are adding one more tool to Wine Australia's export control toolkit. The bill will make maintaining a label directory a part of Wine Australia's existing export controls to deter exporters of wine and other great products that seek to mimic Australian brands for commercial gain. This bill is important to Australia's wine exporters, as well as the wine industry more broadly, and it ensures that Wine Australia is equipped with appropriate regulatory mechanisms for maintaining Australia's reputation for quality and integrity in a growing international market for Australian wine. I commend the bill to the House.

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