Arthur Sinodinos (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science) Share this | Hansard source

I have a couple of points. The first is that I discovered when I inherited the portfolio that my assistant minister is a very capable person. There has been a working group set up to look at options around country-of-origin labelling for seafood, and he has written to key stakeholders seeking their views and further information in relation to consumer access to information for seafood sold in the food-service environment. That is being followed up, and stakeholders have been asked to respond by 9 March, and the working group will then review this information and consider the next steps.

I go back to where I started. This is a process that is Commonwealth and state. Yes, you mentioned what the Territory has done, and the Territory can be an exemplar on many things, I am sure. But we have worked this through with the Commonwealth and with the states. We have had extensive consultation and a regulation impact statement et cetera, so the new arrangements put forward in this bill and the new information standard are going to be reviewed two years after the end of the transition period. And this will be an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of these reforms in meeting their objectives.

In the meantime, I have not had the opportunity as yet to meet with people like the Australian Made Campaign and get it directly from the horse's mouth or pick up whatever recommendations there may be from the assistant minister on seafood.