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

In Australia, we are in the lucky position of being able to control what imports we allow into our country. Our position as an island means we have a natural barrier protecting our livestock and crops from pests and diseases that affect other countries—that is, unless they slip past our quarantine protection or we make a decision to risk it. And this is about making a decision of needlessly risking such a vital industry and our health. We know that BSE causes variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. We know that outbreaks of BSE cause serious and sometimes permanent damage to the beef industries of affected countries. And we know that, so far, Australia is one of the few countries in the world to remain BSE free.

I strongly believe that people have the right to make informed choices about the food they are consuming. This is evident in the bills I have put to the Senate in relation to food-labelling laws in conjunction with my colleagues Senator Joyce and Senator Bob Brown. Currently, under the Food Standards Code, beef products can only be exported to Australia if they are from animals that are BSE free. Under the new standards, countries will be able to export beef products to Australia if they are assessed as having appropriate controls in place to ensure that the products exported are BSE free. This means that countries previously banned from exporting beef products to Australia because of their BSE status will now be able to. But consumers will not know what products come from which countries. Under current labelling laws, they cannot even reliably know which ones are Australian. And we know we have the farcical and, I think, dangerous position where a meat pie, for instance, could be categorised as being made in Australia because of the substantial transformation rule, where over 50 per cent of the value of the product is made in Australia—it could be the packaging or the pastry—but 100 per cent of the meat could come from a BSE affected country and we would be none the wiser under our current food-labelling laws.

We should not be relying on other countries to do the right thing. We should be actively and aggressively protecting our country and our beef industry and, above all, the health of our citizens. Let us put this in perspective: if you want to donate blood to the Red Cross and you lived in the UK for more than six months between 1980 and 1996, you cannot because of the risk posed by BSE. I know that a former president of the South Australian medical association, Dr Andrew Lavender, is in that category and he said so publicly. He has been quite vocal because he has seen what happened in the UK and he does not want it to happen here in Australia. In fact, you are deferred—that means banned—from donating blood for good. But the government feels it is safe to allow beef imports from BSE affected countries. As we saw with the equine influenza, just because we have never had the disease here, it does not mean it cannot happen. And it certainly does not mean we should take a chance. I think the fundamental question here is: what is more important—a free market or a safe market? I know which side I am on, and my colleagues in the coalition and the Australian Greens are on that side as well.