Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Minister Joyce! He has shifted. My apologies. I think that Minister Joyce is currently considering country of origin labelling more generally. I put on the record today that I will be doing everything I can to ensure that the country-of-origin labelling that is currently being considered under wide consultation across Australia for a whole range of different products, at least in the seafood industry is extended to provide an undertaking from states and territories to ensure that, when you pick up a menu, the menu indicates where the product comes from. This is going to be a significant change. I am hoping that by the time we come back in August, Senator Xenophon, this will be redundant, because it will already have been done under another process. I would like to commend you for your assistance in this matter. I would also like to commend all those other speakers who have supported it. It does seem like we have a rare outbreak of multipartisanship in this matter.

It is very, very important. To simply pick up a menu and know exactly what you are eating is, I think, something every Australian would say we should all be able to take for granted.

So, as to any of the notions of opposition, which are highly technical issues, I think we should leave those to where they are best discussed—in foreign affairs and those sorts of matters. But Australia does not join a treaty—Australia does not get into food standards—with the intention of ensuring that somehow this ties one hand behind our back when we are dealing with our own national interest. Fundamentally, I know that every single person in this place would feel that every decision we make in this place should be about our own national interest. So, as to most of those other matters that were discussed earlier, whilst they may be accurate, Australia has maintained and will always maintain our right to continue to provide leadership and advice and legislation that make for the best interests of Australians in this regard.

The labelling of seafood—which, to many, may not seem such a big deal—will have an absolutely inordinate impact on not only so much of the industry but also, particularly, people. People in the Northern Territory, when we first started out on this, were asking: 'How are we going to print new menus—do you know how much this is going to cost?' There was pushback in all sorts of ways. And, interestingly, it is actually those in the industry themselves who now believe that, without a doubt, this is the best thing they have ever done. One of the things they say is: 'We write "imported" here. But when I am down in South Australia, don't we know?' They are really quite excited. Some people make a decision, as to cost or something, when they look at a menu, and perhaps say, 'Yes, I will take that one; it is 90 per cent, but the other one does not have squid in it. So I am going to take some of the imported stuff as well.'

As to the states' and territories' perspectives, I genuinely have very little understanding about why their position has lasted for so long. I have not had a rational response from any of them, over many years—apart from, 'It's a bit hard.' And the restaurant lobby is cranky. I say: you should go and talk to the restaurant lobby in the Northern Territory. They are delighted. They are saying, 'Yes, it was a bit difficult at first, but we are in a new space and this new space is an incredibly good space to be in.' This is a place where people are delighted that they are informed. And, normally, when they ask, because they are now informed they have an interest. They ask, 'So, is this local barramundi?' They say, 'Yes; local.' And they ask, 'What does that mean?' They say, 'That comes from the Northern Territory.' So they have taken it upon themselves; it is not through legislation. Take rock lobster. We have two types of rock lobster that are endemic in Australia; we have the Western Australian rock lobster, and another down south in the southern sites in Australia. With rock lobster, they have actually gone further, because people are interested in asking: 'Where does the rock lobster come from?' They say, 'We have different sorts.' They ask, 'Does the barramundi come from here? Where does it come from? Is it Western Australian barramundi, or from Queensland or the Northern Territory? And is it grown in an aquaculture farm or is it caught in the wild?' And suddenly you will find that the people who are in the restaurant are providing this information as part of an experience. Food is an experience, and part of that experience is now that, instead of staff saying, 'I can remember 20 things on the specials list'—which absolutely stunned me; I do not know how they remember them—those young men and women also understand about fisheries management, and about the importance of where the fish comes from, and they are prepared to answer questions on how sustainable it is, like: 'What about dugong? What about turtles? Are they affected? Are they not affected?' So, yes, it is about food, but it is also about ensuring that we feed the knowledge of young Australians—though not only young Australians; even Australians as old as I am actually eat seafood, but I think there is an emerging Australia that wants to know.

I heard Senator Whish-Wilson's contribution, and there is a thirst to know where things come from and to know what effect they have on the environment. As I have said, there are a number of motivations. Some of those motivations might be from self-interest: 'I want to make sure this is not going to hurt me. It is supposed to be a pleasant experience.' But I think that one of the most significant emerging issues at the moment is the issue that I want to be confident—whether it is a piece of beef, or a prawn or any of the other seafood products that we are going to get on our plate—that I am not contributing to degrading an environment somewhere else. People are thinking and talking about that. So there is going to be an insistence that our own environment in Australia is being better looked after.

I say very proudly: Australia does not have unmanaged fisheries. Some fisheries still need a lot of work, but at least we have moved into a leadership position in the world, of indicating that every single one of our fisheries has to be managed. And they are interesting—we have a lot of interesting mechanisms to manage our fisheries, and the fact that that story is now being told is very, very important. I would never have thought that my interest in fisheries management would be able to be promulgated around Australia—actually by waiters and waitresses and other people who work in restaurants. I think the more information that we have out there the better, not only about Australia's success but the relative success we have because we can say: 'Everything that you eat that comes out of the seafood industry is a product that you can safely eat in Australia, and you can safely say that it is not going to have a— (Time expired)