John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to contribute to this matter-of-urgency debate on country-of-origin food-labelling laws. For 20 years I have been on this issue of proper country-of-origin labelling. Back in the early nineties, when the Hawke Labor government allowed the importing of pig meat from places such as Canada and Denmark, the meat was brought into Australia and processed into ham and bacon, and they put on the package 'Manufactured in Australia'. Australians thought they were eating Australian-grown pork. I was a pig farmer, along with my brother Peter, and we suffered immensely because of that allowance of the importing of pig meat and the totally confusing labelling systems that we have now had for decades in this country.

I want to make a point here. I hope those opposite support what Prime Minister Abbott and Minister Joyce announced last week, but I was concerned about Senator Cameron's interjections in question time today when I asked a question to Senator Abetz about foreign investment and the buying of Australian farms. My second supplementary question was about Minister Joyce debating Shadow Minister Fitzgibbon. Shadow Minister Fitzgibbon said, 'I'll debate you anywhere, anytime,' or words to that effect. So Minister Joyce said, 'Woolbrook, up in the New England Range.' Senator Cameron's interjection was, 'He's gone to the wilderness!' The New England Range is a wilderness? It is a highly productive agricultural region of our nation. It produces a lot of beef and a lot of lamb. There is good stock-carrying capacity in that land. For someone to say it is a wilderness, especially someone who is the Labor duty senator for New England—I am sure the people of New England would not be impressed to hear that comment.

But back to this labelling issue: as I said, for 20 years I have pursued this. At recent hearings into the labelling of seafood, the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee heard that Australis barramundi is actually farmed in Vietnam. Barramundi is a sought-after delicacy that Australians so like to eat. Barramundi is an Aboriginal name. You would think Australis barramundi would be Australian grown. No. It is actually farmed in Vietnam. It is misleading, and thank goodness the ACCC are looking at that now.

Seventy per cent of the seafood we eat comes from overseas. We were told by Matthew Evans, in evidence at Sydney, in relation to overseas fish farms:

I was on a fish farm in China. We went and had a look at fish growing in tanks, then we went out to the farms and they were telling me how good it was. But when I was at the farm there were cigarette butts, an oil slick, polystyrene floating through the farm and dogs guarding the farms were defecating in the water next to the farm. That concerns me. That system would not be an applicable system for us to have in Australia. I have also been to fish farms in Tasmania, inland New South Wales and various places, and seen the system we have here. So, yes, they are not up to standard compared to Australia.

As a fifth-generation farmer, I am very proud of the clean, green food we produce in this nation. We have an excellent reputation here in Australia and right across the world. That is why we have got the huge increase in the demand for our beef and our dairy products, for example.

I will give another example. The honey industry has been hammered by overseas products, particularly from Turkey. The honey industry even did their own testing to prove that a lot of it was only corn syrup, and the ACCC eventually acted, after I started raising it with them. This resulted in a company paying penalties totalling $30,600 after getting three infringement notices in relation to 'Victoria Honey'. You would think, seeing Victoria Honey on the shelf, 'That's honey produced down there in Victoria by our great hardworking beekeepers.' No. It was corn syrup brought from Turkey. This is where the whole labelling system is so misleading. The ACCC also took the company to task for representing the product as originating from Victoria, Australia, when in fact, as I said, the product was from Turkey. Here is another case. Bera Foods paid a penalty of $10,200 because the ACCC considered that, by using the word 'honey' and including a map of Australia on the label, it misrepresented the product as Australian honey, when in fact it was mainly sugars and came from Turkey. This is just crazy.

Back to the fishing industry in the Northern Territory—and Senator Sterle chaired that committee inquiry: when the people of the Northern Territory were informed, because it became law, of what they were eating in the fish and chip shops, in the restaurants, everywhere, and whether it was Australian or imported fish, then guess what: the sales of Australian-grown fish from the barramundi farm up there went through the roof. Their production has gone up, their jobs have gone up, their income has gone up, and no doubt the tax take for Canberra will be going up, because people are not being fooled by the Australis barramundi farmed in Vietnam. They are actually being told the truth. We need to bring that system in right across the nation. Have the blackboard out at the fish and chip shop. Let them know whether they are selling Australian grown fish or fish from overseas.

The current system can be so confusing and misleading. As I said, for 20 years I have seen that there is a need for change in this position. The sooner these laws get into place, the better. We have to give business time, in my opinion, to use up their old labels—say, 12 months—but let them bring in a system where, when people go shopping, they can clearly see whether the food they are about to eat was grown in Australia, is fully imported or is a blend of both. The labelling system as it is now is simply confusing.

I organised a meeting in Sydney probably 18 months ago, with Choice, New South Wales Farmers, AUSVEG et cetera, trying to get common ground through representatives of those groups I just mentioned. Yes, it is difficult, but if we keep it simple then we can get a system in place so that, when Australians go shopping, they know what they are buying. On imported product, the print needs to be greater. Sometimes it is hidden. Often you finish a meal and you might pick up a container and realise where it is made, and you think, 'I never knew that.' The name often is misleading so that they can get market share here. Of course, many of the big supermarkets are buying this product for one reason: more profit margin. It is as simple as that. That is why they buy the cheap imported product. Let's have a good labelling system, support Australian farmers and buy Australian.