Arthur Sinodinos (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable senator for Victoria for her question and her interest in this issue generally. Last night the Senate passed the government's Competition and Consumer Amendment (Country of Origin) Bill 2016. I want to thank my colleagues, including those opposite and from the crossbench, for their support for the bill and the reforms that the coalition government is introducing. I understand some of my colleagues would like to go further, as was expressed during the debate, but passing that bill represents another step in delivering sweeping reforms to our country-of-origin-labelling program and the largest changes to country-of-origin labelling in decades.

As Australians we want to know whether the food we buy is from the country we live in or elsewhere and if it was made or packaged here. We also want to know how much of it was grown by our farmers. The coalition government has responded to the growing demand by Australian consumers to know the origin of their food and has introduced reforms to the system to assist them in making informed choices about the products they purchase. Our reforms greatly enhance the effectiveness of the new information standard for country-of-origin labelling for food. Now that this bill has passed shoppers will see more food products with the new labels in stores over coming months. They will need to carry a label with a clearly defined box; a kangaroo in a triangle logo to indicate that the food is grown, produced or made in Australia; a bar chart to indicate the proportion of Australian ingredients in the food; and a text statement summarising the visual information.

These reforms will provide consumers with clearer, more meaningful and easier to find country-of-origin information so that they can make informed purchasing decisions in line with their personal preferences. Reforms such as these have been a long time coming. There is more to be done, but the coalition has got the bit between its teeth and is pleased to be delivering these reforms now to provide a more informed consumer market.