David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Industry and Science. Will the minister outline to the House the government's approach to country-of-origin food labelling? Will the minister outline what community support exists for this approach and is the minister aware of alternative policies?

Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lyne for his question. I know that his constituents, like constituents right across Australia, are talking to their local members about this issue. We as a government are committed to it, but I know that the constituents of each of our electorates are very keen to see a resolution to an issue that has been around for 30 years.

We have been hard at work on this issue and, at the same time, meeting with stakeholders groups right across consumers, industry and agriculture sectors. The level of support for this measure is overwhelming. Yes, there are concerns. Yes, they are seeing that we are addressing them. Yes, they are reassured that we will be going out and having stakeholder workshops right across Australia to give all of the aspects of consumer and production the opportunity to have their say and have it taken into consideration. We know that consumers want a labelling system implemented that they can actually understand. 'Made in Australia from local and imported goods' means absolutely nothing on a label. To see exactly what they do need, we will be conducting extensive market research.

Whenever there is a problem, always look to science for a solution. I said this in a speech last night. I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his bipartisan approach in terms of supporting science last night—short lived, but it was bipartisan last night. When you have a problem, you turn to science. As part of the solution to this, we will also be investigating technology where we can use either existing bar codes or a modified coding system, where an app on your mobile phone will not only tell you where the product is made and how much Australian produce is in it but actually give you an extensive story about the product itself that you would never be able to fit on the label of a can or a bottle.

What we are going to be doing over the ensuing months is making sure that we can bring this all together. It is not a simple process. If it were simple, someone would have fixed it already. The member for Lyne asked me about alternative proposals. There was nothing in the preceding six years—not a thing. Not even a try. And how common is that across the board on so many issues?

We know we also must comply with WTO and international trade rules. Again, there is going to have to be some hard work involved in that. That is why there is a ministerial working group on this. We know that after 30 years we can fix this for consumers.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.