Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Again, I thank Senator Bernardi for his question. I can't comment on any individual cases that Senator Bernardi has raised. I don't have information about them, but I should note that in the government's response to the Senate inquiry it noted that a review in 2011 had found that halal certification did not add materially to the costs for consumers of products in Australia. I would also add that it's very important that Australia maintains market access for red meat to other countries. There are complications in the sense that different countries and, indeed, different customers within those countries sometimes have different requirements, so I don't necessarily think it is as simple as Senator Bernardi has presented it. But, as I indicated in my answer to the first question, the government does takes these matters seriously and is working with industry to improve the monitoring and enforcement of the regime.