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

by leave—I move Democrat amendments (5), (6) and (7) on sheet 5257:

(5)    Schedule 3, item 5, page 89 (line 10), omit “draft after review”, substitute “or request second review of draft after first review”.

(6)    Schedule 3, item 5, page 89 (line 17), at the end of subsection 88(1), add:

; or (d)    request that the Authority review the draft.

(7)    Schedule 3, item 5, page 89 (after line 19), after section 88, insert:

A second review is to be conducted in the same manner as the first review as provided for in this Division.

These amendments keep the minister’s ability to have two opportunities to request a review of any FSANZ application or proposal. The bill proposes to reduce it to one, as I understand it. The food industry says that these reviews are unnecessarily prolonging the standard development process and prevent the commercial benefits of getting new, innovative products onto the market quickly. It is not clear how consumers might be disadvantaged when application processes are prolonged as a result of ministerial requests for review. In requesting these reviews, ministers are looking after the interests of their constituents when they feel the consumer and public health interests have not been adequately addressed. Limiting the capacity of ministers to request a review would limit their ability to protect the interests of consumers. It is our understanding that second reviews have only been requested on a very few occasions. So there seems to be no good reason to remove them.