Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

Can I start by thanking those members who have taken part in the debate on the Food Standards Australia New Zealand Amendment Bill 2010: the member for Boothby, the member for Oxley and the member for Pearce. I acknowledge the longstanding interest and advocacy by the member for Pearce on the issue of food standards and also her contribution on the notice of motion moved by the member for Kingston on food labelling, which I listened to with interest. I thank you for your contribution to that. I certainly note those contributions as we head into making some decisions once the labelling review is announced and I get a look at it in December.

The amendments to this bill are designed to reduce the level of unnecessarily and poorly designed regulation and its resulting negative impact on business. The bill does implement a reform agreed to by all states and territories through COAG as part of the seamless national economy reform agenda to streamline the process of setting maximum residue limits for chemicals in the Food Standards Code. I also note the bipartisan support from the opposition for this bill.

Specifically, this reform will address the delay and uncertainty for users of agricultural and veterinary chemicals, who are typically primary producers, which results in overlapping regulatory responsibilities for setting maximum residue limits of chemicals allowed to be present in food. These overlapping responsibilities mean that there has been a time lag of nine to 12 months—and, unfortunately, in some cases, as the member for Pearce stated, occasionally 18 months—between the APVMA establishing an MRL in relation to an agricultural or veterinary chemical product and when FSANZ is able to effect a corresponding modification into the Food Standards Code. The amendments contained in the bill streamline these processes by establishing the APVMA as the single decision maker for setting MRLs. Under the new system, the APVMA can use a decision on a maximum residue limit taken in the course of approving a chemical product registration or permit application to vary the maximum residue limit standard in the Food Standards Code.

FSANZ, as the scientific experts in food safety, will retain responsibilities for the dietary modelling that the APVMA will rely on to establish safe chemical residue limits. I do note that the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee inquiry into this legislation canvassed the issue of food safety and public health and safety extensively and concluded that there was no risk in this legislation at all. I want to thank the members for their contributions to the debate on this bill. I think it has brought out a number of issues in terms of primary producers which have been helpful to hear. These amendments do reduce duplicative administrative processes while retaining a no compromise approach to protecting public health and safety. They do demonstrate that the government is committed to identifying and taking action in areas where unnecessary or poorly designed regulation is impeding Australian business but also note the government’s absolute commitment to public health and safety. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that the bill be reported to the House without amendment.

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