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

I endorse the remarks of my colleague Senator Siewert. Anyone who saw the Sunday night program on the Seven network last Sunday would be very disturbed at the findings that it took Greenpeace, not our food regulatory authorities, to discover that there are genetically modified organisms in baby formula. It shows how weak our labelling laws are in this country, how weak the regulatory framework is. The regulator should be doing this, not an NGO. I am disappointed that the government has not made a stronger statement to say that this is completely unacceptable, that whatever the outcome of any review we need to move on this to ensure that consumers are fully informed, particularly with regard to baby formula, and that there are not any genetically modified organisms in the product. If you look at the science, there is a real concern about the long-term health effects of genetically modified organisms in foods and the effect they could have, for instance, on the immune systems of infants. So I think the government needs to do a lot better on this in terms of their position.