Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As part of Fair Trade Fortnight in May this year, a competition was conducted to ascertain which supermarkets stocked the biggest range of Fairtrade certified and labelled products in Australia. One of the supermarkets that were successful and found to stock the most was Coles in Belmont, which is in the electorate of Shortland. It took out top honours in Checkout Fairtrade across Australia, along with Leo’s Fine Food and Wine in Kew, Victoria.

In conjunction with the competition to look at the supermarket that stocked the most Fairtrade products, there was also a competition to put forward the best idea promoting Fairtrade. That was also won by somebody within my electorate, Lorna Bateman, of Valentine, whose suggestion of a Fair Dinkum Fairtrade in-store promotion was the best entry based on its creativity and the combination of Australian ideas. Her idea was a ‘fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work’ and that is right at the heart of what Fairtrade is about.

The stores that performed very well across Australia had a wide range of Fairtrade products, but they were mainly limited to coffee, tea, chocolate and nuts. In Europe, and particularly the UK, customers can choose from a huge range of Fairtrade products. I would like to see this increased within Australia. Australia’s sale of Fairtrade products has been growing strongly. It has increased by 80 per cent since 2008. But I would like to see more options for Australians when they go to the supermarket.

You might ask why you would become a Fairtrade community. It gives positive publicity to the issue of Fairtrade and really provides people the opportunity to think about what they are buying and to be able to buy products that take into account fair trade, and look at the issues of where that product is produced, how it is produced, and the kinds of conditions under which it is produced. I refer the House to Tackling poverty through trade, which is put out by Oxfam. It is an excellent document and really sets out the background to Fairtrade. There is also a Fairtrade procurement guide that is available for people to utilise when they go to the supermarket. (Time expired)

Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! In accordance with standing order 193 the time for constituency statements has concluded.