Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I really do thank the opposition for giving us this opportunity just to focus for a while on a very good success story that this government has. I will outline the success story in my speech. In around two weeks time a brand-new food safety regulatory system is coming into force and it will be a world first. It is designed to give local producers, local industry, local workers much better control over their product, their workforce and the success of their export lines. This is the substance of the motion before us and yet those opposite have chosen to focus on something else again on themselves. That is no real surprise here. My colleagues have spoken and we heard previously many of them speak on these distractions that are already taking place. The great reform that is the substantive subject of this motion is exemplified by the new Australian Export Meat Inspection System. It is considered great and it is a great shift from the past, a great opportunity for current and new employers and industry players and also a great example of how Labor and industry work together to achieve superior outcomes for all those involved.

The reforms we focused on are broad applying to a range of foods but with the very limited time I have in this speech this evening I will only be able to focus on the example of a seismic change that is occurring within the meat export industry. Graintec Scientific have referred to this overhaul as the most significant reform in decades. Australian Meat Industry Council manager Steve Martin describes the reform as the culmination of five years of AQIS and AMIC work on maximising efficiency and productivity replacing a system based on the world of some 30 or 40 years ago. He said:

We needed something that better reflected the needs of 2011 export market access.

I am not quoting the minister there these are the words of Steve Martin manager of the Australian Meat Industry Council. This is a fact that the government has known to be correct. This is the goal that this government has striven to achieve. This is the outcome that this government will deliver next month. Industry support for this change is evident in the Australian Meat Industry Council's presentation of the 2011 Red Meat processing innovation award to a Queensland family run meat processing company called Nolan Meats. This award was presented less than two weeks ago on 7 September. Nolan Meats was presented with this prestigious award for what Beef Central describes as:

… its work in pioneering the application of food safety reform under the ground-breaking Australian Export Meat Inspection System.

So I want to read into Hansard some of Beef Central's account of Nolan's meats historic success piloting the new Australian export meat inspection system:

Nolan Meats has long had a goal to gain access to all international markets, with company people fulfilling the meat inspection role. It saw such a move as simultaneously providing a stronger career path for personnel, and greater flexibility and efficiency within the role carried out by meat inspectors.

“Most importantly we believe AEMIS enhances product safety,” company director Tony Nolan said.

“It’s about building-in quality at all points of the supply chain to reduce costs: not putting faith in government to ‘inspect quality in’ at greater cost, at just a couple of points in the chain.”

“Quality and safety are our responsibilities under the system,” Mr Nolan said.

"Having our own personnel take ownership and responsibility for meat inspection enables us to have a QA culture that embraces ‘total accountability’ instead of the government’s ‘all authority and no accountability’ culture,” Mr Nolan said.

As a result, productivity has been greatly improved, by having meat inspectors multi-tasking and performing all or part of other tasks necessary to allow smooth and efficient production flow. It also allowed valuable feedback to be transferred back up the supply chain where problems were identified.

The company has now achieved market access to countries that had been considered, under Australian Government Market Access terms, to be ‘too sensitive’ for the new AEMIS system. These included Japan, Taiwan and Korea.

All costs were borne entirely by the company and it says it expects to achieve a five-fold return on its investment. So we have evidence of the potential for productivity gains, and while my colleagues have talked a lot about the meat industry, it continues (Time expired)

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