Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Country of Origin) Bill 2016. This bill amends the Competition and Consumer Act of 2010, altering country-of-origin labelling and safe harbour provisions under Australia consumer law. The main change that this bill makes is for the labels for most food that is grown, produced or made in Australia to include a logo—a kangaroo in a triangle symbol—as well as a bar chart and text statement to show the proportion of Australian ingredients. Australians are entitled to know exactly where their food comes from. Labor supports this amendment. Buying Australian is the best way to secure quality food. Labor remains willing to work with Mr Turnbull and his colleagues to improve our country-of-origin labelling requirements.

However, perhaps the Liberals should think more broadly about their neglect of biosecurity and Australian manufacturing, which is putting jobs at risk and taking our economy backwards. Come to think of it, this is not the only thing going backwards under this government. 2017 began for Malcolm Turnbull much the same as 2016 ended, with scandal, humiliation, disappointment and division. After what was a pretty unimpressive year, I think it is fair to say that Mr Turnbull and his Liberals really needed to put their tails between their legs and hit the reset button over the summer break. And there has been more. Of course, we had Senator Bernardi defecting from his government, the Liberal Party, yesterday. But here we are in the first parliamentary sitting week of 2017 and the government is still fumbling around, unable to figure out where they stand, what they stand for and which way is up. To be fair, there are some people out there who were inclined to cut Mr Turnbull some slack last year. He was finding his feet after limping across the 2016 election finish line, but it has been almost 18 months now since the Prime Minister knifed Mr Abbott in the back. Enough is enough. If Malcolm Turnbull has anything resembling a policy agenda or a plan for 2017, now would be a really good time to tell us about it.