Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

What has pre-empted this, particularly today, is that Greenpeace—not Food Standards Australia New Zealand and not the government—tested some baby formula and found genetically modified product present. It also found the presence of the antibiotic resistance marker. They do not know it but Australians are feeding it to their infants. Mothers want to be able to make a choice. It is not good enough to say that FSANZ tests products. It obviously does not, in fact, test products; it relies on information from industry. The point is that there is baby formula on the market in Australia at the moment that mothers and fathers are feeding their babies thinking it is safe. If they knew that there was genetically modified product in it, they would not buy it. That is what the surveys show and that is what companies do not want. They do not want to have to put ‘May contain genetically modified organisms’ on their labels and they certainly do not want to tell parents that their products may contain the antibiotic resistance marker, which may have very serious consequences for children later in life.

The government has been talking about reviewing and amending labelling laws for years. I have been in this place for over five years now, and for over five years you have been talking about fixing up labelling. It is not good enough. They need to do it now, not wait for another review. The parents of Australia at the moment are not able to make informed choices and they are saying that is not good enough.