Perin Davey (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In Australia we have a health star rating system, which is a system designed to help consumers make healthier choices. It is a system of good intent. Currently, there are over 10,300 packaged foods and drinks in Australia that have a health star rating label on the package. The system is designed to compare like for like: dairy products, packaged foods and non-dairy beverages.

Under the rating system these products are given a rating based on their nutritional profile according to a strict calculation called the Health Star Rating Calculator. The integrity of this calculator is paramount to the integrity of the system. If we get it right, it has great potential to aid consumers. If we get it wrong, it can be absolutely misleading. I will give you an example. If one beverage product had on its ingredient list carbonated water, colouring, acidity regulators, sweeteners, preservatives, caffeine and natural flavours, and another beverage product had on its ingredient list natural fibres and vitamins A, B6, C, thiamine, folate, calcium, magnesium and potassium, which would you choose as a healthier choice?

I know from my position that I'd choose the one with the vitamins and not the one with the numbers. But if we get the calculator wrong under the Health Star Rating system because of the protein, fat, carbohydrate and sugar content of the two products, then the product with the fibre, vitamin C and minerals may come in with a lower Health Star Rating than the other one.

Those two products I compared were diet cola and 100-per-cent orange juice. When I talk to parents who want to do the right thing by their children, they would acknowledge that orange juice is a healthier choice than cola. Thankfully, most parents don't rely wholly and solely on the Health Star Rating but it does show how dangerous it is if we don't get the calculator right. We must ensure that the calculator does as intended, which is to base its ratings on a combination of assessing the total energy, saturated fat, sodium and sugar content as well as the fibre, protein, fruit, vegetable, nut and legume content. It must consider all of those, because in that way it will consider the nutrition of the product and not just the salt and sugar content.

This system is not just about health; it's also about our valuable citrus fruit and beverage industries in Australia. There are 1,900 Australian citrus growers across our country and they support 5,000 full-time equivalent jobs. A lot of that product goes into our high-quality, fresh 100-per-cent Australian fruit juice, and I'm not just talking about orange juice. We have apple juice, which is so important to the apple growers around Batlow in my state, and across Tasmania, and other high-quality, healthy fresh fruit and vegetable juices that we produce in Australia.

Citrus Australia CEO, Nathan Hancock, has said that their growers would be gutted if they were told that their fresh, high-quality 100-per-cent juice products were of lesser health value than diet cola. We need to ensure that our Health Star Rating system maintains its integrity in Australia. I call on the council of food ministers across Australia and New Zealand to ensure that the calculator has integrity, remains robust and considers fruit, vegetable, nut and legume content as well as the other factors to ensure that we are promoting healthy choices.