Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

On the same topic, I want to commend the work of my colleague Senator Bernardi in this area. I have not had an opportunity to read all of his additional comments on this report and, while I myself am a member of this committee, I was unable to attend the public hearings on this inquiry. But I do want to commend his work, because halal certification is an area I have some personal experience with and it is certainly an area that requires some degree of reform and greater transparency in the accreditation of the accreditation of certain providers and halal certification bodies is certainly an area that requires some degree of reform and greater transparency.

It is an extremely important area for our red meat industry in particular, which I have been involved in in past careers. It is important for our market access. Obviously, our red meat industry is sometimes on the front line of diplomatic efforts through the world because it sells meat. The companies I have been involved with have sold meat to pretty much every country in the world bar Cuba and, in that respect, they probably have more contact with different countries around the world than some of our diplomatic corps would in any one year. So they understand the need to respect local practices and the need to modify what they do to get access to other markets. The frustration they have in that attempt to do that—a good-faith attempt—is that there are often bottlenecks in the system that require certain Australian red meat operators to deal with individual halal certifiers. There are a range of certifiers that are accredited by the Australian government for export, but sometimes—given market, customer or national preference—there are only a limited number of certifiers in this area.

I credit the work of the Economics References Committee in exposing some of what can only be described, at the very least, as anticompetitive practices. The committee has recommended greater transparency and oversight of these areas. That is something that could not only bring greater competition and transparency to this industry but also be of great help and assistance to our red meat industry in gaining access in a cost-effective and competitive way to overseas markets. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.