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

As a block? Very well, if that is going to save time. I seek leave to move all the amendments standing in my name and the name of my colleague Senator Siewert together.

Leave granted.

I will very briefly set out the reasoning for each amendment, if that is the will of the chamber. Firstly, amendment (1) relates to the commencement date. The amendment acknowledges that and so provides that the mandatory labelling of palm oil will apply only to goods sold at least 12 months after this act is given royal assent. I should point out that there is a similar application provision in amendment (3), which provides that the mandatory labelling of palm oil will only apply to goods manufactured 12 months after this bill is given royal assent—again, acknowledging the long shelf life of certain products. I will speak to that in shortly.

Amendment (2), relating to purpose, follows discussion with the coalition and my colleagues in the Greens. It is in line with the amendment to remove the provision in the bill relating to certified sustainable palm oil labelling. It also amends the purpose of the act to take into account that this labelling, under the Australian consumer law, is applied to goods. Currently the bill refers to food but, of course, palm oil is present in around 50 per cent of goods on supermarket shelves—not just foods but also cosmetics and other household goods.

Amendment (3) removes the certified sustainable palm oil provision—and we have already discussed that.

Amendment (4) relates to the Australian consumer law and follows my discussions with the coalition and, in particular, the shadow minister for consumer law and member for Dunkley, Mr Billson. Section 33 of the Australian consumer law says that a person must not, in trade or commerce, engage in conduct that is likely to mislead the public as to the nature, manufacturing process, characteristics, suitability for purpose or quantity of any goods. Under the proposed amendment, one of those characteristics is palm oil. What this essentially means is that, where palm oil is a characteristic of a good, the manufacturer must not mislead the public by labelling it as simply vegetable oil.

There is also in the amendments an application to say that this requirement will apply to goods manufactured 12 months after the bill has been given royal assent. This will give manufacturers time to transition to the labelling requirement—again, acknowledg­ing that some products which contain palm oil have long shelf lives.

Before I finish, it would be remiss of me not to thank my adviser Evelyn Ek. She would probably kill me if I did not acknowledge the enormous amount of work she has done on this. I fear that she will threaten to say that, if this bill goes through, she has no further reason to work with me and can retire from working as a political adviser. I hope that is not the case—and I hope that she is not poached!

I move amendments (1) to (4) standing in my name and the name of Senator Siewert:

(1)   Clause 2, page 2 (at the end of the table), add:

(2)   Clause 4, page 2 (lines 15 to 20), omit the clause, substitute:

4 Purpose of Act

     The purpose of this Act is to ensure that consumers have clear, accurate information about the inclusion of palm oil in goods.

(3)   Schedule 1, item 1, page 3 (lines 8 to 23), omit subsections 16 A (1) and (2), substitute:

(1)   The Authority must, within 6 months after the commencement of this section, develop and approve labelling standards that prescribe that producers, manufacturers and distributors of food containing palm oil, regardless of the amount of palm oil used in the food or used to produce the food, must list palm oil as an ingredient of the food.

(4)   Page 4 (after line 14), at the end of the bill, add:

Schedule 2—Amendment of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010

1 Section 33 of Schedule 2

Before "A person", insert "(1)".

2 At the end of section 33 of Schedule 2 (before the note)

Add:

(2)   For the purposes of subsection (1), the characteristics of any goods include the use of palm oil in the goods or to produce the goods.

Application

(3)   Subsection (2) applies to goods manufactured after 12 months after the commencement of that subsection.