Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

I am glad the senator has taken the time to familiarise himself with the relevant provisions, particularly in reference to the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade and our ability to impose product quality and safety standards and imported and, indeed, domestically produced goods. Reasonable spot checks are allowed to ensure compliance with the relevant safety and other standards. This is true for domestically produced as well as imported products.

Spot checks are conducted on numerous products in Australia to ensure compliance with standards by both state and federal governments, but I am sure the senator is not suggesting that this enforcement regime be extended to literally every imported and domestically produced good. Such a regime would obviously introduce all of the understandably prohibitively costly processes for both government and the economy as a whole. Nonetheless, the spot check approach allows for a standard to be sustained in this way. In this regard, we do have confidence in the standards, but they require constant attention, as one would expect.