Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

As all Australians would be aware, since 13 September this year there have been a number of confirmed cases of people finding needless in strawberries. While the initial reporting concerned Berry Licious and Berry Obsession strawberries from Queensland, police and health authorities have warned of copycat cases across Australia.

On 19 September, it was reported by the AAP that Australia's strawberry contamination scare has now spread across six states. The Home Affairs minister said on Wednesday that there were up to 100 reported cases, although many of these were believed to be hoaxes. In response to these and other stories of needles being found in fruit, some supermarkets have pulled their strawberries from their shelves. We know that our farmers are suffering and we are reaching a critical point where lasting damage to the industry could be done. This is a completely unacceptable situation and is having a devastating impact on strawberry farmers.

The Morrison government has responded by making some changes to Commonwealth laws that it hopes will assist in deterring and prosecuting the individuals who have engaged in these recklessly destructive behaviours. According to a search of the Commonwealth Sentencing Database conducted by the Parliamentary Library on 19 September, there are no cases recorded against any of the existing offences in part 9.6 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code which deal with food contamination. Those offences were first introduced in 2004. While we have not had time to ascertain the reasons for this, it may be that the authorities have not used the existing Commonwealth offence provisions because of the existence of equivalent state and territory criminal offences in relation to the contamination of food. Those state and territory offences have a broader application than the equivalent Commonwealth offences due to the constitutional limitations on the Commonwealth's legislative powers. Those people who have caused the current crisis should face the full force of the law. What they have done is a despicable act with far-reaching consequences. I would urge all members in this place, when they leave Canberra today and tomorrow, to support the Australian farmers by buying a few punnets of strawberries at home and sticking it up on social media. Things like this matter.

I would like to note that the opposition has been asked to consider and agree to this legislation in an extraordinarily short period of time. It's highly unusual for amendments to be made, in particular to our Criminal Code, without any consultation at all. We do not want to set this as a precedent for future legislation. On this occasion, we recognise the gravity of the situation at hand. Labor will be supporting the bill.