Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speeches read as follows—

This Bill seeks to implement long overdue reforms of Australia’s food labelling laws – it’s about doing the right thing by consumers and our farmers.

I am very pleased to be co-sponsoring this Bill with the Leader of the Greens Senator Bob Brown and Leader of the Nationals in the Senate Senator Barnaby Joyce.

I think it speaks volumes about the importance of this Bill that politicians from a broad spectrum of politics can agree on the need for an overhaul of current food labelling laws so that Australian consumers can be fully informed about what they are buying.

If we are what we eat, we have a right to know what we are eating and current Australian labelling laws don’t allow consumers the opportunity to know the origins of the food they are purchasing and consuming.

Under current legislation and the resulting Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code ‘Made in Australia’ doesn’t mean what many of us would think that it means.

Under current rules you can describe a product as ‘Made in Australia’ when half of that product may in fact have been imported from overseas.

Under the rules only 50% of a product has to come from this country for a product to be labelled as ‘Made in Australia’.

Moreover, that 50% can include packaging. So you can have a system where most of the actual food contained in a product is foreign and yet it can still be labelled ‘Made in Australia.’

Adding to the confusion is the fact that the less clear term ‘Product of Australia’ is used to describe wholly Australian produce, even though it could be argued that to Australian consumers, this term is decidedly ambiguous.

I believe the current labelling laws are bad for consumers and bad for primary producers.

They make it hard for consumers to buy Australian, and in doing so they dampen demand for Australian produce, hurting food producers in this country.

I have received many submissions from Riverland fruit growers in my home state of South Australia who say that the current labelling laws are significantly contributing to the serious challenges they face.

And I would like to take this opportunity to pay particular tribute to the work or Riverland citrus grower Ron Gray, who has campaigned for decades on this issue.

Like all Riverland growers and primary producers around the country, Ron doesn’t want a special deal, he just wants a fair deal.

He wants ‘Made in Australia’ to mean just that, totally made in Australia from Australian produce.

He wants ‘Fresh’ to mean ‘Fresh’ and ‘Daily’ to mean the product is produced every day.

And that is fair enough.

Allowing foreign fruit to be effectively hidden in juices that call themselves ‘Australian made’ for example, hurts demand for their produce and is contributing to unsustainable prices.

And yet, it doesn’t seem as though consumers are paying any less at the supermarket.

In fact, the only ones who seem to be making money out of the confusion surrounding fruit juice labelling are the big, predominantly foreign owned juice companies who are able to pass off significantly foreign juices as ‘Made in Australia’ and then pocket the difference and the big supermarkets chains who sell the stuff.

There are also environmental factors to be considered here.

Why would we allow foreign food, which has had to travel thousands of kilometres to make it to Australia to be labelled as ‘Made in Australia?’

What are the environmental impacts of this travel?

I note that this is not the first time this issue has been raised in the Senate and I want to pay tribute to the work Senator Bob Brown has previously done on this issue.

A similar Bill was championed by Senator Brown in 2003 and again in 2005, and the reasons Senator Brown gave for change then are just as valid now.

I note in his 2nd reading speech on this issue in 2005 that Senator Brown objected to claims made by Coles and Woolworths that they put country of origin labelling on 90% of their fresh food products.

Senator Brown quite rightly pointed out at the time that the claim made no reference to the vast amounts of packaged food that consumers buy off the shelves in these supermarkets.

Clearly we can’t trust the supermarkets to put consumer knowledge above the profit motive, which is why we as legislators must act.

This Bill is a good first step in ensuring clarity for consumers and protection for Australian food producers and retailers.

If a product is only partially Australian, the label should say so.

If half of it comes from overseas the label should say so.

There is no question that food production standards are lower in some countries and that needs to be an issue consumers can factor into their choices.

It’s appropriate that this Bill goes to a Senate Committee to be robustly scrutinised and I would encourage grower groups and packagers, retailers and consumer advocates to take part in that process.

It is important that we achieve real change on this issue.

Consumers have a right to know what they are consuming and food producers shouldn’t have to put up with foreign rivals passing their products as Australian made.

I sincerely hope this government does not make the same mistake the previous government made in assuming that Australian consumers will put up with business as usual on this issue. They should not underestimate the current level of consumer and producer concern.

I commend this Bill to the Senate.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted.