Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I differ from the minister on whether this is the place to do it or not, and I remind the parliamentary secretary that this amendment is simply to instruct the authority to produce a system. We have not attempted to indicate how much fat or salt or anything of that sort should be included in the red-light system but, rather, it is an expression of instruction, if you like, to an authority to develop such a system. We have not attempted to develop it here; that is not what this amendment is about. It is about giving an instruction to an authority to do it.

It would be useful to know whether Australia is going to be proactive in this way. Will you, as part of the food standards process, be pursuing this or not? It would be useful for us to know that. I assume that in this, as in most consultations, the government will be going in with a platform that it starts with as a negotiating point. Is that going to be the case? Will a traffic light system or something similar be part of the negotiation we take into this consultation?